Scotomas
by darkenedcrystal
Summary: After the game against Jabberwock, Kagami goes overseas and Kuroko finds himself without a light and stumbling into the darkness that is Hanamiya Makoto. A slightly angsty, rather light-hearted story featuring teens finding their way around life, Seirin's basketball without a light, the Generation of Miracles being a family, the teens finding love and appreciating the heartbreaks.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is a super super work in progress. I love imagining these characters grow and what their daily life is like. This is the fic stemming from all the hours spent reading fics in the fandom. Shout out to every single one of you contributing to this fandom because there are way too many awesome characters here and there's never enough to read.

Just a little background, this fic starts after Kagami leaves for America at the end of Kuroko no Basket Extra Game, the one after they play against Jabberwock. I love reading fics with Kuroko as centric and Hanamiya is such a little lovable shit. There's not much out there on Hanamiya but thank you authors for building up his character. I urge everyone who hasn't read this pairing to check out the other fics on them. They're really well developed and I will attempt to try my best to do the same.  
Also, GoM together makes my heart feel warm. there will be many random GoM together scenes.  
Enjoy! This is just the start and hopefully it will end somewhere.

* * *

"Do you hear that? Is it a ghost?"

"Shit man. It's been going on every night now. You don't think this place is haunted do you?"

Kuroko wanted to roll his eyes but with how often this happens, he continued on with practice and ignored the voices. He needed to get this shot down – 6 out of 10 was not good enough.

Kagami left for America about three weeks ago and Kuroko was feeling the strain of not having his light around. Or any light for that matter. Ever since Kagami's departure, the team seemed to place their collective expectations on the Shadow. The first thing they did was work on Kuroko's teamwork with other individuals on the team to see if there was a suitable light to replace Kagami. When that didn't work, they tried to incorporate Kuroko's playstyle to Seirin's style before the duo had joined the team. Needless to say, Kuroko had some trouble incorporating his moves to how the team was at the moment. Coach Riko dismissed everyone for individual training until the start of the new school year.

"Here's your training regimen for the rest of the break. Work on it! I'd better see some improvements by then or your menus will be tripled!"

So here he was, training every night since then, trying to improve his own skills, trying to find a direction without a light, trying to be the light, trying anything that might work.

Kuroko sighed in frustration.

Akashi and Murasakibara went back to their own regions after the match with Jabberwock with a promise to meet at the Interhigh Championships. He would have asked Kise to help him with training but Kuroko wasn't ready for the amount of commitment needed to entertain the hyper, overly clingy man. Takao would kill him for stealing Midorima and Aomine was a light that Kuroko wasn't ready to revisit.

Kuroko groaned in frustration when the ball didn't go in again. 5 out of 10. He needed to concentrate.

"That was a shit shot."

Not again. Kuroko wanted to scream at his misfortune.

"I said it was none of Hanamiya-san's business yesterday. It hasn't changed since then."

The captain of the Kirasaki Daiichi team scoffed. "As if I care. I just wanted to remind you it was a shit shot. You're a shit shot."

"I got that the first time. You don't have to repeat it."

Hanamiya Makoto started coming to the court 3 nights ago. Each time, the assho- the Captain would sit at the bench and either sneer or at Kuroko's failed shots. The first night, Hanamiya laughed and boo-ed at him. The second, the captain started to shoot him with harsh statements on how much of a failure he was. On the third, Hanamiya just sat there quietly, judging.

Kuroko did spare some time to wonder what tonight was going to bring.

"You're a shit shot because of that shit form you're using. Who taught you to shoot three pointers like that? Was it the green one or the blue one?"

"The blue one." Kuroko sent a glare at the other for the uninteresting names. "He only taught me to shoot from within the semicircle. Not outside of it."

"That's why you're such a shit shot at the moment."

"Hanamiya-san must be slow to comprehend. I said I heard you the first time."

"You know, after the first night, I knew how to solve your dumb shooting problem. I'm not sure I want to share my amazing solution with you and your shitty disrespectful attitude."

"I didn't ask you and your amazing intellect to solve my problem for me, Hanamiya-san. So please save your time and have a good night."

"If you're going to be so fucking rude don't use such polite words."

"And if you're trying to be helpful, stop being so vulgar and ill-mannered."

"Fine."

"Fine."

It started from here.

6 weeks after Kagami left for America, school and training started again.

As per traditions, the first years sat to watch the second years play against the third years. Despite Seirin's win last year, there were not that many new recruits because of the news about their star player leaving the country.

Fukuda seemed to have buffed up over the holidays and was guarding Hyuuga quite efficiently. Furihita was keeping up with Kogane, and Kawahara could shoot despite Mitobe defending him. Kuroko was shifted to the point guard position and did demonstrate some improvements in dribbling. A first year was subbed in to take Kagami's position and had Tsuchida on him.

The problem with the second year team was evident in just the first ten minutes. Despite most of them having the skills to shoot, they were just not as impactful as Kagami had been. It limited the types of passes and the areas Kuroko could pass to, thus weakening the passing specialist's skills. Kuroko knew he could shoot threes (9 out of 10 from exactly at the line!) but he also knew it was a card he wanted to pull out in the first match against a strong team and was unwilling to use it now. The purpose of this match up was to test out new positions and if there was any way to shuffle the line-up.

At the fifteen minute mark, the junior team was down by 12.

"We need to shoot more threes to decrease the gap." Fukuda pointed out.

"We also need someone to increase the pace of our attack. The senpais are totally controlling the pace right now!" Kawahara added. "Man, this is when I miss Kagami."

"Yeah we really need someone to break through into the paint like Kagami used to do." Furihita couldn't help but compare. "Kuroko can only do so much without his light you know?"

And how was a statement like that supposed to make him feel? Kuroko was tempted to compare their skills to that of his previous light but kept all his remarks in.

"Seirin's not the same without the power duo, you know? The sempais are carrying their weight at the moment but when they leave after graduation, we're doomed!" The first year remarked. Kuroko felt a deep anger boiling within but kept his neutral face on.

"We need to move around more. Pass more. Make them move out of the paint so I can pass to someone inside." Kuroko suggested and the rest nodded in acceptance.

"You're the boss, man. We'll try that out." Kawahara sighed as if he knew it won't change the outcome of the match.

It didn't.

The game ended with the score difference at 9 in their senpai's favour. Riko commended the second years on their improvement but Kuroko felt the weight of their loss solely on his shoulders. He spotted Aomine and Momoi hanging out on the bleachers since half time and noted they were now making their way towards him.

"Tetsu-kun!"

"Yo, Tetsu!"

Kuroko sighed. He really didn't want to show such a display to Aomine. He felt pathetic.

"Geh. What are they doing here?!" Hyuuga scowled.

"Spying on us? Isn't it a little too early in the season for them to do this?" Koganei whispered out loud to Mitobe who nodded.

"Maybe they were just passing by to check out their passing specialist." Izumi wiggled his eyebrows.

"Shut up, Izumi!"

"Aomine-kun, Momoi-san, what are you doing here?" Kuroko was pretty sure his two friends were here on personal business.

"Just checking out how you're doing, Tetsu." Aomine swung an arm around the shadow's shoulders.

Momoi exchanged a smile with Riko before addressing Kuroko. "Tetsu-kun! We went out of town to visit Daiki's grandparents over the holidays and didn't manage to catch up with you! He kept talking about basketball and missing you so we just had to come over to watch your first training of the year."

"Yeah! We should totally train together again, Tetsu!"

"We're on different teams now, Aomine-kun." Kukoro stated.

"But we can still train together on the weekends! I can help you with your shooting or passes! You can be my shadow again!" Aomine pushed.

"He's Kagami's shadow, you can't have him!" Furihita shouted and the rest of the team called out their agreement.

"Kagami isn't here anymore. Does Tetsu-kun have a light here he can train with?" Momoi asked with a smile on her face but Kukoro was pretty sure everyone could feel her fangs.

"Face it, Seirin. Kuroko doesn't have anyone he can partner up with in your current team line up. You're wasting his potential here. He would be more useful to someone like me who can work off his skills better." Aomine smirked.

"I go to Seirin, Aomine-kun. There's no way I can play for you. I'm here to stay." Kukoro explained patiently despite feeling the end of his patience drawing close.

"But you're useless here, Tetsu." Aomine said it in such a matter of fact manner that pissed him off so much.

"I was useless to you at some point in time too, Aomine-kun. Don't treat me as a puppy you can call back when you please. I might not be as useful to Seirin as I used to be but I'm still part of their team." Kuroko snapped. "Now, if that is all, please excuse me."

"Tetsu, wait. That's not what I mean."

"Then I must have misunderstood you. Perhaps we can clarify the issue another time." He stormed off. He really hated it when they spoke about him as if he wasn't there. As if he didn't already understand the situation. Why did he have to become a shadow again? Takao was a shadow and he didn't need a light to play. Why couldn't Kuroko play like that? He was all about team play and that didn't mean he needed a light to play his style of basketball.

That night, he made a request.

"I want to observe how you and your team play."

"You know, I agreed to stop being so vulgar if you would stop being so fake-polite. That doesn't mean I don't appreciate your please and thank yous."

Kukoro glared. He really wasn't in the mood for this.

"Someone told me I was useless on court. It seems like I can't do anything without a light." Kuroko explained, not sure why he was telling this to the bad boy of Kirisaki Daiichi.

"Bullshit. But how is this my problem again?"

"Your team functions just fine through teamwork alone."

"Well, I wouldn't call it teamwork alone. High IQ is needed for our level of play, something that majority of Seirin lacks."

"I want to learn how to do that."

"You mean how we work together to play dirty and send people off the court?"

"No. I mean your spider web."

"And why would I let you learn the techniques of my spider web?" Hanamiya raised a brow as if he was waiting for Kuroko to convince him rather than saying no from the get go.

"I'll show you my vanishing drive." Kuroko staked.

"Hmmm…"

"And my phantom shot."

"We have training on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Text me when you're coming."

"Fine."

"Fine."

Kuroko saw the head of blue waiting by his gate and prepared himself mentally.

"Tetsu."

"Aomine-kun."

"We need to talk."

He sighed internally. "Do you want to come inside? I have tea."

Aomine shrugged. "Sure."

The house was quite. His grandmother went to bed early and his parents were both not in town. Kuroko turned on the lights and headed for the kitchen to boil some water. Nigou was in the backyard so Kuroko let him into the house. He also made sure to refill Nigou's bowl of water and food.

"I only have ocha."

"Ok."

It was silent while the water boiled and Kuroko prepared the tea bags. Aomine busied himself with playing with Nigou. Kuroko then brought both cups to the dining table where Aomine was seated at and waited for the other to start talking. He didn't have to wait long.

"I'm sorry."

Kuroko continued keeping quiet, knowing Aomine would explain himself.

"I was an ass in Teikou. I took you for granted. You made basketball fun, you know? You made me good. You made all of us better." Aomine started before taking a sip of his tea. Kuroko followed. "I took you for granted. Basketball became boring. And yet, when I played with you on Vorpal, it was fun. I missed that." The darker haired male stretched out a hand to touch Kuroko's right forearm and gave it a squeeze. "You're amazing. You're not like us and yet you're stronger than us all. I hated seeing you play with Bakagami. It was like being slapped with the realisation that I wasn't special. I wasn't the only one you could synergise with."

"What I said this morning…" Aomine continued. "I was just so eager to have you back that it came out all wrong. Satsuki says I'm crap at talking. I hope you understand what I mean even if I don't make sense, Tetsu. You're real smart with that."

"You don't make sense 90 percent of the time and I still understand what you want, Aomine-kun." Aomine scowled, Kuroko smiled. Aomine's thumb started rubbing circles on Kuroko's arm conveying his relief at Kuroko's easy forgiveness.

"But for real. Do you need help with basketball? I saw your match. You're looking for a new style." The other offered.

Kuroko was then reminded that he needed to drop a text to Hanamiya-san. "It's alright. I've got it covered. Just be prepared for everything when you face us at Interhigh."

"Che. You're always full of surprises. For all I know, you're going to dunk or something next."

"Have you seen my leg muscles? I train by pulling Midorima-kun's rickshaw every day."

Aomine roared with laughter.

8 weeks after Kagami left for America, Kuroko finally found a new method of playstyle that could suit his current team.

After watching Hanamiya-san's team play, Kuroko realised Kirisaki Daiichi was probably the team with the best teamwork next to the old Seirin. Everyone in the team participated in the playstyle for it to work. It wasn't the same as Touou or Kaijou who could play in their own styles while their star player scored however they wanted. It wasn't like Shuutoku who played around Midorima during clutch time.

In Kirisaki Daiichi, everyone was needed for Hanamiya-san's spider web to work. They were all constantly reading each other's movements and subtly signalling to each other. It was a privilege to watch the team while they were not trying to foul.

Kuroko was a passing specialist. He needed to level up his passes using better dribbling skills. He started to practice his bounce passes and double vanishing drive with Izuki during practice. With his better dribbling skills, he could trigger misdirection overflow any time and lower the consequences of witnessing that skill.

Their first match in the Interhigh preliminaries was a win. With the starting line up as Hyuuga, Izuki, Mitobe, Kuroko, and Koganei, Kuroko was able to synergize well having played with most of them in the previous year. They read each other well and was able to pull off some form of zone attack and defence based off Hanamiya's spider web style.

Unfortunately, all good things come with a price.

"You think I haven't noticed you dribble and feint in my style? You owe me." Hanamiya now started shooting baskets while Kuroko practiced dribbling.

"You could have copied my vanishing drive and shot as well." 'But you didn't and that's your problem' went unsaid.

"You know you owe me."

Kuroko did know.

"I have to do up a report on the Imperial courts during the 14th century. I need to make a trip to that new museum opening on Saturday. The guys won't go with me because they're shit like that."

Kuroko measured the favour mentally. He was interested in going to the new museum anyway so it wasn't that big a request.

"Fine. I'll go. But you have to treat me to lunch." He tried.

"You little shit. You owe me. Remember that."

"Fine. 1 milkshake."

"Fine. But you're buying your own lunch."

"Fine."

_'We trashed Kaijou today. – Mako-tan.' _

'Tetsu-kun! We're meeting at Ryou-kun's apartment to cheer him up. He's in a bit of a funk. Please bring ice cream. – Satsuki-chan'

Kuroko made his way to Kise's apartment after picking up some popsicles from a nearby shop. When he arrived, Midorima and Momoi were nursing cups of tea at the dinner table while Kise gestured wildly with tears streaming down his face. Aomine was lying on the couch adding to Kise's story.

"Kuroko-cchi!" Kise cried and rushed over to hug the smaller boy, pausing his story. "Today was such a bad day! I'm glad you came with ice cream!"

"It's alright, Kise-kun. You guys did your best." Kuroko gave the blond a pat on the head and handed the popsicles over.

"It was but it was so humiliating! They were such assholes! They managed to send Hayakawa off court using their stupid dirty plays and since he's our new captain, the juniors were like headless chickens after that!" Kise took one and handed the rest of the box over to Midorima who helped himself and passed it on to Momoi. "By the way, how did you know I was upset about the match, Kuroko? Were you keeping up to date with Kaijou's schedule? You're so sweet!"

Kuroko smiled but didn't comment. "I'm sure Kise-kun did his best."

"At least you didn't get injured. You should be thankful I passed you your lucky item before the match." Midorima added.

"Shin-kun is right! The fact that you played Kirisaki Daiichi and didn't get hurt is a miracle in itself!" Momoi continued.

"That bastard Hanamiya actually said to me that I wasn't worth it. If he wanted to hurt someone he would target the real ones and not a copy cat."

"What an asshole, he's just trying to get into your mind. At least you scored majority of the points and the score difference was only 2 considering your captain got sent off." Aomine continued. "But you've been slacking haven't you, Ryou? You haven't played any one on ones with me this season. How are you supposed to copy me properly if you don't even try?"

"Your tricks are crap, Ahomine! That's why I lost! You wait till we meet in Wintercup! We'll trash you!"

"Oh big words for someone who lost a match today. We beat you last year Ryou, I'm sure we can do it again this year." Kuroko smiled at how easily Aomine baited and distracted the blond.

"Just you wait. We've been working on something especially for Touou."

"Fools. You know Shuutoku was rated most likely to win by Basketball Weekly right?"

"I'm going to go to the mountains to pray for Cancer to be the most unlucky for the day of our match."

"I'll come with you, Aomine-cchi."

"Don't you dare! And why are you siding that formless idiot, Kise!"

"Let's test how much luck affects your basketball, Shin." Aomine taunted and the three continued to bicker. Kuroko chuckled. It was a while since the bunch of them have been so friendly with each other. He really loved times like this where the Miracles felt like family and showed love in their strange way.

"Oh Momoi-san?" Kuroko moved to the table to sit next to the pink haired girl.

"Hmm?" She asked distractedly while still smiling at the bickering trio.

"You and Aomine-kun are starting to call the rest by their birth names." Kuroko observed.

"Mmnn! Daiki and I decided that we wanted to be closer to our middle school friends. After that talk Daiki had with you, we realised that we needed to keep the group together and appreciate the friendship we have." Momoi explained with a look of nostalgia on her face. "We all went through a challenging period to be back here. I think we need to cherish our time spent together more. We're all in different school but this is family, you know?"

Kuroko smiled, warmth booming from his heart. He was glad they were back together.

"Thank you for always watching over us, Satsuki-chan." Kuroko tested the girl's name on his tongue. It felt right. Momoi beamed and reached out to hold onto his hand, giving it a squeeze in appreciation.

"If only Seijuro-kun and Atsushi-kun could meet us more frequently." Kuroko wished.

"We'll have them over for the holidays. And you'll meet them in the semi-finals for sure." Momoi assured. "On another note, Imayoshi-kun tells me you've made a new friend. Don't think I didn't notice you knew about Ryou-kun's match before he told you."

"Hmm. I have." Kuroko replied minimally to test the waters on where Momoi wanted to bring this conversation to.

"I'll keep it quiet for now, Tetsu-kun. They won't like it." Momoi warned.

"I'll be fine." Kuroko replied but it was rather vague to what he was replying to.

"And I trust your judgement." The pink haired girl nodded.

"You're all narrow-minded blockheads! We need to gather our forces to defeat Seirin. They are the Wintercup champions after all and they have a bye in!"

"You're right, Shin! Tetsu told me he's practicing to dunk now."

"ARE YOU SERIOUS, AOMINE-CCHI!? WHY DID WE NOT RECEIVE THIS INFORMATION!? WE NEED TO RESTRATEGISE."

"Ryou-kun lower your volume! This is why your neighbours make complaints!" Momoi scolded.

"Wait. Takao did mention that he spoke to Kuroko recently about some lower body training regimen recently…"

"HOLY SHIT YOU WERE SERIOUS ABOUT PULLING SHIN'S CART, TETSU?!"

"KUROKO-CCHI PULLS MIDORIMA-CCHI'S CART FOR HIM?!"

"Have you seen these monsters, Ryouta-kun?" Kuroko gestured to his calf muscles. He also noticed Kise's eyes sparkled with happiness at the form of address.

"Oh I'll be looking forward to playing the match with Seirin, Tetsuya-cchi." Kise replied accordingly sending a spark of happiness through Kuroko.

"Shintarou-kun, I shoot threes too. Watch out." Kuroko said in a totally deadpan tone.

"I'll be sure to look out for your threes, Tetsuya." Midorima smirked. Kuroko was pretty sure Midorima didn't believe him. He'd show them.

"The next thing you know, Tetsu will have grown another 30cm by Interhigh and start blocking shots like Atsushi." Aomine played along.

"I do my stretches every day. You'll never know how tall I'll be by then."

The night continued in friendly banter, all negative experience of the day forgotten.

_'Ryouta-kun is really upset. Watch out, Makoto-kun. Seirin will take you down. – Kuroko Tetsuya.' _

"So you're starting to call everyone using their given names?" Hanamiya asked during one of their nightly practice. Kuroko could read the other a little better by now and it seemed like Hanamiya was a little irritated at something. "What happened to the polite little boy I met at the start of the year?"

"I'm still polite. I also assumed that the fact that you saved your name as 'Mako-tan' on your phone meant that I could address you somewhat informally?"

Hanamiya scoffed, then pulled out his own phone. "If you're going to address me so familiarly, I'm changing your name on my phone. I cannot stand the formality of 'Kuroko Tetsuya'. How does Tsuya-tan sound?"

What? "That doesn't even make sense."

"What about TsuTsu-chan?"

"I'm not a pet, Mako-tan."

"Maybe I should call you something else entirely. How about Little Shadow?"

"Sounds a little affectionate, doesn't it?"

"It really does."

"Why can't you just call me Tetsuya? Or Tetsu?"

"Because your little red and blue call you by those names already. And it'll actually make you happy. That's not what we want now, is it?"

"Mako-tan needs to feel special?"

"You little shit. I already am special. Don't group me up in your dysfunctional colour spectrum of friends." Not wanting to talk anymore, Hanamiya keyed something into his phone and kept it away. It was obvious that Hanamiya was really irritated. "Now, you were supposed to let me practice my version of ankle break."

"I'm not allowing you to break my ankle."

"You don't have a choice. I allowed you to practice your bounce pass between my legs yesterday."

"I'm still not allowing you to break my ankle." Kuroko repeated but was getting worried at the other's insistence.

"You agreed to it!" Hanamiya snarled in frustration.

"You said you were going to practice a move you learnt from Seijuro. This is nothing like that skill."

"It has the same name." Hanamiya's hands moved to grab Kuroko's shoulders. His mood had changed for the worst and Kuroko really didn't know what caused it. "You're going to stand here. And let me practice. Keep your fucking word."

"Perhaps then Hanamiya-san can keep his word as well."

"Fuck."

"Hanamiya-san." Kuroko scolded.

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Now, stand still Tetsu-tan. I promise this won't hurt too much." If Kuroko was afraid of the smirk on Hanamiya's face, he made sure the other didn't know.

"What the fuck happened to your legs?!" Aomine was borderline freaking out. The taller man knelt down to rub at several huge patches of black and blue on Kuroko's calves and ankles. "How did you get so bruised up?!"

"I think I was lucky that I didn't break anything. Thank you for your concern, Daiki-kun. And thank you for my lucky item, Shintarou-kun." Kuroko gestured to the elephant plushie currently in his arms. It was the size of Nigou and felt very comforting to him. The pup was currently with the rest of Seirin and Mitobe offered to take care of him for the next few days (Koganei explained).

Aomine made himself comfortable on the ground and continued to massage Kuroko's legs, while Midorima brought over a cup of tea. The two of them decided to visit Kuroko after Aomine heard from Momoi who heard from Riko that Kuroko was absent from school today. Midorima heard from Takao who heard from Izuki. Kise had work at the moment while Momoi wasn't able to come today because Touou had a match to play.

Aomine was placed on bedrest after Touou's match with Onita High. Aomine had attempted a formless shot and managed to sprain his back. They still won the match by a big margin but Touou's coach wouldn't allow Aomine to participate in any matches until the end of preliminaries.

"So what happened?" Aomine asked.

"I miscalculated. Tripped up a little." Kuroko shrugged, not lying but also making sure not to give too much.

"Have you seen a doctor?" Midorima bent down next to Aomine to inspect Kuroko's legs. "Nothing is broken, right?"

"Nothing successfully broken. Only bruises."

"Don't even joke about it, Tetsu. How long do you need to rest for? You have a match against Shin's team coming up this week."

"I'll be able to play by that time. Don't worry." Midorima and Aomine exchanged looks and sighed.

"You take good care of him alright? Don't let him walk around for now. Ice it if he feels the pain." Midorima directed then moved to pick up his bag. "And you. You're not allowed to carry anything heavy. Sit up straight, get off the floor that's not good for your back. Do some stretches but nothing excessive. I have to attend the final training for our match tomorrow so I can't be watching over the two of you all the time."

"Yes mum." Kuroko replied while Aomine added a "You're such a naggy tsundere."

After Midorima left, it was quite for a while, both bluenettes just enjoying the company. Aomine continued to rub circles on Kuroko's bruises but listened to Midorima's advice and moved onto the couch instead. Kuroko lay flat on the couch, legs propped on his previous light's lap. It was intimate even for them who were the closest out of everyone from Teikou. Kuroko did enjoy the new closeness of the team and didn't mind the direction they were moving in.

"Kagami told me to take care of you before he left." Aomine suddenly started. Kuroko was more irritated than surprised at the news.

"Why does he think I need taking care of? He's the one who's always getting into trouble and you're almost as bad as him."

"You won't understand, Tetsu. It's a light thing."

Kuroko was getting rather annoyed but knew he had to keep it in to prevent things from getting awkward. "We were light and shadow on court. But off court, I felt like we were on equal ground. He watched out for me and I did the same for him. We were partners." The memories brought a lump in his throat. "He actually asked for my opinion before accepting the offer to move back to America. I was thankful that he set me apart from his other friends, but was resentful as well because he placed a heavy amount of pressure on me to make the decision to send my closest friend away."

"How close were the two of you actually?" Kuroko wondered how much he could tell Aomine without some sort of negative reaction from the other. Aomine had stopped rubbing his bruises, seemingly distracted by his thoughts on the subject at hand.

"He picked me up at a time when I hated basketball. He was my light when the entirety of my previous team left me." It was hard to explain the depth of emotions he had for Kagami. It's been 10 and a half weeks since the red head had left and Kuroko still count the days despite having the Miracles back in his life. Kuroko felt Aomine looking at him and had to cover his face with a forearm. "I miss him."

There was a pause before Aomine answered. "Yeah. I miss playing with him too." Kuroko was pretty sure the other wasn't that daft. If Aomine wanted to pretend then let him.

"But you have us now, Tetsu. We'll help you and we'll never leave you again." Aomine continued.

"And I'm thankful for that. But it's different." Kuroko swallowed. He didn't say he had two lights and they both have a record of leaving. "It's alright. I'm just being selfish."

Aomine reached out to hold Kuroko's hand. Kuroko squeezed back. The rest of the evening was spent resting in each other's company with comforting gestures that Kuroko didn't want to think about.

Kise arrived close to ten at night after his match to the sight of his two blue haired teammates sleeping on the couch, Kuroko curled into a ball on Aomine's lap with a pillow to prop his head up and a stuffed elephant cuddled in his arms while Aomine's head was tossed back to rest on the backrest of the couch, fingers intertwined with the smaller boy. Kise couldn't help but smile at the sweet picture but also felt a well of emotions seeing the two together. The legendary pair that used to be inseparable, got broken apart, and now found their way back again.

Pulling out his phone, he took a photo of the sweet sight and sent it off.

_'Your shadow is in good hands - Kise'_

* * *

A/N: To make things clear for the texting in Italics, the sign off name is actually whatever the receiver saves the sender's name as. So for example, in Kise's phone, most of them are saved as xxxx-cchi.

So, '_Your shadow is in good hands. – Kise._' means that Kagami saved Kise's name as Kise (how boring bakagami). This is important to take note because upcoming chapters will have some texting and the sign off name will give an indication of who's receiving the messages. Hope this clear things up!


	2. Chapter 2

The two teams from the Tokyo region to qualify for the next round were to be decided today. In the other bracket, after defeating Kaijou, Kirisaki Daiichi would face off against Touou. The first match for the day however would be Seirin versus Shuutoku.

The second years were feeling the jitters as this was going to be their first match against a team with a miracle. They would not be playing the full match but the possibility of being subbed at any time had them anxious. Furihita continuously recounted the match last year against Rakuzan where he had to go up against Akashi and many of the first years listened with rapt attention.

While Seirin was walking towards their locker rooms, they ran into Kirisaki Daiichi who were being rowdy and loud as usual.

"That was the school that caused one of our senpai to be hospitalised." Koganei whispered to a junior as Seirin passed by.

"Last year, their captain got so pissed off at Kuroko that he tried to slam an elbow into Kuroko's face. Luckily, Kuroko managed to dodge. Their captain is the dark haired one with the bushy eyebrows. Don't look!" Seirin hurried past, heads down, eager to relieve themselves of the tension.

Reminded of the story, Kuroko thought about his current relationship with the violent captain of Kirisaki Daiichi. How was it that the two of them have come to a point where Kuroko would willingly allow the other to hurt him willingly? Why did Hanamiya even want to be friends(?) with him? The captain always treated him with respect and their relationship was one built of fair trade. Kuroko couldn't understand Hanamiya's reason for ankle breaking him to that extent. The shadow did not go back to the courts to practice since that night. It was rather petty but Kuroko felt justified. After all, the bruises hadn't faded and neither had his anger. Sure it wasn't out of character for Hanamiya and not totally unexpected for the captain to be violent. But it wasn't a trade of equal value and that was what had Kuroko perplexed.

Why was he so concerned and confused about his relationship with Hanamiya anyway?

Maybe it was all part of the spider's stupid little game and Kuroko had been played.

Whatever the reason, Kuroko's eyes found the green ones of Hanamiya as they passed each other in the corridor. Hanamiya hadn't texted him since then either so Kuroko didn't feel the need to do anything. The captain had a Maji Burger cup in his hands and was drinking out of it. The older boy didn't even acknowledge Kuroko as Seirin walked past.

Fine. Whatever.

Kuroko hurried on with his team only to feel something brushing his hands and a pressure against his palms. Unconsciously, he grasped on to the familiar shape pressed into his palm. Without stopping, Seirin passed Kirisaki Daiichi.

Instinctively, Kuroko took a sip of from the cup of vanilla milkshake in his hands. It was full, Hanamiya was totally fake drinking from it. He looked down at the cup. It was a normal cup, nothing written on it. Not that he expected there to be.

He smiled.

Ahh. So the other had understood the unfair payment for the ankle break practice.

Suddenly, it felt like all was right again. Kuroko didn't think too much about how the whole incident had affected him but he focused on the peaceful sentiment floating in his chest.

In the distance, He heard one of Hanamiya's team mates ask for a sip of his drink only to realise Hanamiya had 'tossed' the cup away already. Kuroko grinned, and was proud of himself for not chuckling.

The team settled into the locker room quickly. Warm ups and a pep talk from Hyuuga started.

"We've beaten them before, we can do it again!" Hyuuga started. "They've got an amazing three-point shooter but Seirin has one too!"

"That's not for you to say!" Riko slapped the Seirin shooter on the back of the head and gave the team a proper strategy talk. After that, the team left the locker rooms with a "SEIRIN GO!"

Stepping onto the court, Kuroko's eyes searched towards the opposite team's benches to look for his green-haired friend.

_'Aquarius's lucky item of the day is a brass coin. 5yen will do. – Ryouta-kun.' _

Kuroko had received the message earlier in the morning and kept a 5yen coin in his pocket which he took out at this moment to taunt Midorima with. Midorima was on the opposite bench but after seeing Kuroko's lucky item, he frowned and walked over to exchange their customary pleasantries.

"Hmm. Seems you came prepared." Midorima glowered and gestured to his own lucky item on the Shuutoku bench (a stick of lip balm) "So did I."

"I hope all your shots today are successful then, Shintaro-kun." Kuroko goaded with a little grin on his face.

The Shuutoku shooter snorted, but copied Kuroko's grin. "I hope you'll make all your shots successfully today too." Midorima's eyes gleamed with humour.

"Wish me luck then." Kuroko couldn't help but let out a little bit of excitement in his tone despite Midorima's mocking gibe. He looked forward to seeing their faces later.

Scanning up in the stands allowed him to spot Kise easily in the crowd. The blond was waving crazily and cheering for both teams. He gave the Kise a small wave. Aomine's team huddled near the exit towards the locker rooms, trying to get a glimpse of the match before their own. Kuroko gave the Touou power forward a small nod in acknowledgement too.

He really couldn't wait to see the look on their faces.

The match started with Shuutoku in possession of the ball and scoring the first basket from running down the centre quickly. Izuki immediately took the ball, passed it to Kuroko who bounced it to Koganei, breaking through Shuutoku's defence, leading to Seirin's first points.

Back and forth they went with the score keeping even until Takao dropped a signal to Midorima to start increasing the gap. In a flash, Shuutoku adapted and changed their formation to suit the three-point play. Defenders screened for their ace and Takao's hawk eye helped with directing plays leading to Midorima sinking threes after threes. Seirin fought back by enabling Hyuuga but no matter how Seirin's captain tried to even out the score, it was simply not enough to keep pace with the miracle that was Midorima Shintaro. Without Hyuuga in clutch mode, Seirin lost the first half 28 to 41.

The starting players headed back to the bench, sweat soaked and demoralised.

"Alright, team, focus. That was just the first half! Let's go with Kuroko's shadow zone for the next quarter. If we can't stop the threes, we can at least stop the ball from getting to Midorima-kun." Riko directed to keep the team's mind on the game. "Izuki-kun, shift places with Kuroko. I want every ball inside the semi-circle to be blocked or stolen, and every ball outside to be in Hyuuga's hands. We'll close the gap this round."

Kuroko gave Riko a firm nod but noticed that the second years were a little worried about being able to close such a large gap.

"Hey! We've made it this far. We can do this." Hyuuga declared and the starting team nodded.

"Yeah! SEIRIN GO!" and the team walked back out onto court.

Kuroko watched Takao's eyes light up as Kuroko stepped into the point guard position. He knew how Takao played. He knew what sort of passes Shintaro-kun needed. He knew he could make the shadow zone work for Seirin against Shuutoku. Kuroko felt his body start to shake from the nerves.

Knowing and believing were two different things. He had something to prove. But being able to do it successfully was a total unknown. But he had to. But he was just a shadow.

Mako-tan would call him a little shit if he saw how much Kuroko was shaking and doubting. Focus. Think of nothing. Focus on the emptiness. Be a void. Just. Do.

He took a deep breath.

"Yaaa, I was wondering when you guys would pull out the new formation." Takao raised his arms to defend Kuroko with the usual mocking grin on his face. "I'm really excited to test out how my hawk eye fares against your shadow zone."

Focus.

Kuroko didn't reply, but sent a look over Takao's shoulder to Mitobe and he was off. Takao turned to follow but spluttered after running into the screen that was Mitobe and couldn't keep up with Seirin's new point guard. Another exchanged glance with Koganei, and suddenly Shuutoku's attention was pulled away towards Koganei's sudden change in direction, leaving Kuroko to pass the ball smoothly to Hyuuga. When everyone's attention focused back on the play, the ball had already sunk in from the three-point line.

This was Kuroko's shadow zone where everything within a small area would be affected by his controlled misdirection supported by the rest of the team.

Takao quickly regrouped and send the ball flying back into the court. Shuutoku's forward dribbled onwards but the moment he got into the paint, the ball was stolen and sent halfway down the other end of the court from one of Kuroko's passes. The next few times Shuutoku had possession of the ball went similarly. Somehow, every pass or dribble into the semi led to a stolen ball through some form of misdirection or screened defence. Takao had snarled in frustration after finding himself in the semi-circle of Kuroko's shadow zone and being unable to pass the ball out or forward several times.

Kuroko was getting slightly tired from watching the movement of everyone around him. A little shift from Hyuuga getting into position meant that he could signal for Izuki to get into the paint and a bounce pass from the blindside of his defender would get the ball to Izuki to shoot while everyone's attention was on his captain who looked like he was preparing for a three.

Kuroko was in control of all the plays. He had learnt how to predict. He knew what to watch out for. He had learnt how to use his teammates in a similar was Mako-tan used Kirisaki Daiichi in a spider web. All his time playing basketball, he had depended on a light. This time, he was the one in control. For the first time he felt like he didn't need a light and it was exhilarating.

When it seemed like Shuutoku was going to pass to Midorima, Izuki's eagle eye would pick it up and he would run to help Mitobe double team the shooter. Kuroko processed the move and knew he would have to use misdirection on himself to steal the ball from the free player in the semi. While Kuroko's peripheral vision took care of the shadow zone, Izuki's eagle eye focused around the other team's star player and that was the foundation of Seirin's new formation.

The Shadow Zone - Kuroko made sure to give the play a name so people would be misdirected from the fact that it worked almost identical to Kirisaki Daiichi's spider web.

The second quarter counted down with the ball in Shuutoku's hands but with Takao unable to pass the ball safely, they ran out of time to pass. The whistle went off, 50 to 51 with Seirin in the lead.

The halftime break saw Seirin in a better mood and Kuroko smiled a little, feeling accomplished. He was tired both mentally and physically but there was a glimmer of hope that Seirin could really win this match.

The third quarter brought some more challenges. Takao had found a way to work around the shadow zone. Everyone took a few paces backwards out of the semi and suddenly passes and shots were more effective. Kuroko found it hard to watch out for player's movement when they were more spread out around the court. Midorima was shooting from almost at half-court, his lucky item, the stick of lip gloss, glinting in the light after each successful shot.

Riko must have seen that the Shadow zone wasn't as effective so Kuroko and Koganei were both swapped out, while Furihita and Kawahara were called in. Both second years were more pumped up from Seirin having the lead in the second half and were not as nervous going into the match. In the end, Seirin still managed to keep the gap and by the end of the third quarter, the score was a difference of 1 but in the favour of Shuutoku. It was a close game.

Kuroko had some time on the bench to think of a new strategy but the team was wary and worried.

"We need to do something. We won't be able to win if they keep shooting threes like that." Izuki started.

"It would be better if we can get them to shoot twos instead of threes. Make sure that the ball doesn't get to Midorima." Riko shifted some of the pieces on her board to show the new formation for the last quarter.

Koganei sighed. "I can't help but feel Kagami's absence on court. We all have to run more and switch into defence and offence more smoothly now that Kagami isn't here."

"Baka! We can't rely on him anymore. We can't be lazy." Hyuuga admonished.

Koganei exchanged looks with Mitobe, "Eh!? Don't joke about that, Mitobe. There's no way coach can increase our menus any more without us keeling over!"

"Boys! Focus!" Riko scolded.

For some reason, in every other match, someone had to bring Kagami up. Kuroko couldn't help but feel sore about it. Kagami was part of a duo. Why couldn't the team rely on him in a situation like this? Seirin was leading after the second quarter mostly due to his contributions! After all the changes to his playstyle, was it still insufficient? He couldn't help but feel bitter about all the hard work he had put in that had gone unnoticed by Seirin.

It wasn't his fault they were not strong enough to utilise his specialties.

No. Alright. He needed to stop thinking about it and start focusing on the solution. Deep breaths. Feel the emptiness. It's not like this was the first time his teammates didn't need him. It's not like he'd never felt this useless before.

Kuroko felt a shiver going down his spine and a voice calling him an idiot for being a depressive brooder. He really needed to focus on the moment and sort out his thoughts later.

From the corner of his eye, he spotted something shining in the dark.

Hanamiya stood alone in the shadows along the corridor leading to the locker area, casually applying lip gloss. The teen looked ridiculous leaning against the wall with his legs artfully crossed as if posing, left hand in his pocket while his right applied the gloss to his lips. The shimmery surface of the lip gloss caught the light and glinted teasingly. The captain smacked his lips a few times as if tasting, then brought the lip gloss closer to his eyes as if to read the contents in the gloss.

Kuroko blinked a couple of times, then took a few seconds to process the scene before snorting in amusement. Only Mako-tan could give an encouragement of this calibre. Kuroko felt for his own lucky item in his pocket, thankful for the reminder of what he needed to do.

"Coach." Kuroko spoke up and all eyes turned to him.

"Geh! Sorry Kuroko, I forgot you were standing there. That freaked me out a little." Both Hyuuga who stood next to him and Izuki jumped a little.

Kuroko resisted rolling his eyes. "Please leave Midorima to me. Let's go back to the first quarter's formation with Izuki-senpai as point guard. Do your best to defend as per normal but don't let the ball get to Shintaro-kun. I'll defend him personally."

"Do you have a plan, Kuroko?" Riko asked.

Kuroko tried to give an assuring smile. "I'll try to shoot as much as I can as well. Please pass the ball to me whenever you see the signal. Let's try to keep the score difference as minimal as possible. I will guarantee us a win."

"You won't be Kuroko if you didn't say things in such a straightforward manner." Hyuuga sighed but gave Kuroko a pat on the shoulder, while the rest of the team gave him nods of assurance. "Alright! You heard our miracle! On three!"

"SEIRIN GO!"

Kuroko chanced a glance back to the corridor but no there was no one there. A quick check towards Shuutoku's bench showed an absence of Shintaro-kun's lucky item too. Kuroko didn't know what Sagittarius ranked today, but he knew Seirin was going to rank first.

Shintaro-kun didn't have his lucky item after all. The win was Seirin's.

The whistle sounded and Izuki started off with the ball. Takao took a moment to acknowledge the change in point guard again but adapted quickly. Kuroko kept up with Midorima and made sure to steal from others whenever he could.

At one point, he managed to score back to back with his phantom shot from within the painted area. ("I can't phantom how Kuroko is shooting so accurately." "SHUT UP IZUKI!")

Another pass from Izuki led to a redirected pass to Hyuuga but with a defender crowding over the captain, Hyuuga had to pass back out to Kuroko who then made a shot from just within the semi. Three consecutive shots in a row for the player who hadn't made a shot the entire game. The crowd was going wild. Kise's voice rose above the others and Kuroko felt his spirits sore.

This was going to be his highest scoring game ever. Kuroko felt the jolt of adrenaline and couldn't help but twitch his fingers, ready to steal or shoot at any moment. It was addictive being in the light.

"You're getting better with shooting." Midorima had noticed his jitters and commented.

"And I'll keep getting better. You'd better watch out for me, Shintaro-kun." A smirk tried to bubble out onto his face but Kuroko kept it in. Anticipation seeped through him but he knew he had to wait for the right time to make the appropriate shot to make it poetic – so much so that Mako-tan would appreciate it.

The game continued with the scores being close. The two teams took turns taking the lead but when it came down to the final few seconds, Seirin was down 2 points. Izuki had the ball but Shuutoku's defenders were surrounding Hyuuga forcing a two point play with a foul at worst. Izuki directed everyone into position, passing to Koganei then to Mitobe but neither could score with assurance. Hyuuga was not an option and the clock was counting down.

Kuroko knew it was time. He couldn't have asked for a better scenario. The phantom finally allowed the smirk to crawl out on his face. He must have given something away because Takao quickly directed his team to defend after seeing the crazy smile on Kuroko's face and said something along the lines of "be alert, something's up!"

Kuroko was standing just a step outside the semi but sent a glace at Izuki who looked confused as to why Kuroko wanted the ball outside the semi. No one in his team knew about the late nights training with Mako-tan to perfect this.

Izuki passed him the ball anyway.

Everyone on the team had a defender while Hyuuga had two. No one bothered to defend him. He was the only free man on court. Shuutoku thought they were forcing him to shoot a two or try passing. Either way Seirin would lose if that were the only two options.

Too bad Shintaro-kun hadn't heeded his advice.

With the borderline insane smile on his face, Kuroko tilted his body sideways into a shooting stance with his body slightly lower than normal as if he were going to propel the ball further.

He was.

As the timer ticked down to the split second, Kuroko released the ball in an arc not at all similar to Midorima's. It went more forward than up, hit the backboard, and rebounded into the net noisily. It didn't have the grace that Midorima's had, but a three was a three nonetheless. The buzzer sounded just as Kuroko's shot went in.

102 to 101. Seirin had won and Kuroko had shot the winning shot.

In Mako-tan's words, 'Fuck yeah.'

The feeling of watching Shintaro-kun's jaw drop, and frozen on court would forever be archived in his memory. The shooter hadn't even bothered to defend Kuroko despite all the warnings. Kuroko wanted to blow a raspberry at the other but knew it would be too childish and it might really send Midorima into a stroke.

Ahhh… so this was how it felt to sink a buzzer beater. This electrifying, hot, bursting sensation that crashed through his mind and body.

Kuroko finally realised the court was silent, and it wasn't just Shintaro-kun's face who was locked in surprise. The whole of Seirin and Shuutoku were stunned frozen. Up in the audience, Kise, along with several other players from Kaijou, had stood up and was half hanging out of the railings but frozen as well.

The referee finally blew the whistle and called for Seirin as the winners with just a one point difference. Seirin's bench seemed to have finally woken from their shock and started to cheer and run on court towards Kuroko who had started laughing very uncharacteristically from the high. The seniors who had finally snapped out of their daze started to scream ecstatically and ran to pile onto Kuroko and their juniors who were all hugging the blue-haired teen. The crowd started to cheer crazily with Kise leading the cheers for Kuroko. At some point in time, someone lifted Kuroko onto their shoulders to parade around.

He felt like he was flying.

Kuroko couldn't believe the happiness and adrenaline bubbling from within. If this was what his lights felt every match, no wonder they loved playing basketball so much. It was crazy! It was amazing. It was a drug.

He was put back on the ground when the referee called for the team to line up to exchange bows. Midorima looked at him with pride and respect and Kuroko couldn't help but beam at the other.

"It's the first time I've seen you smile like that, Tetsuya." Midorima was smiling despite the loss. They shook hands. "I could tell you were definitely confident in that last shot and it wasn't just a fluke. You've been training hard."

"Of course. It's hard to make shadows shine." Was Kuroko's reply.

"We will definitely be ready for your dunks too next match. I look forward to it."

"Thank you, Shintaro-kun." It seemed like his smile was somewhat infectious as Midorima was smiling as well and felt the affection to even ruffle Kuroko's hair in public.

Seirin was in a celebratory mood back at the lockers.

"You've been holding out on us, Kuroko!" the second years swamped him. "You've definitely been practicing your shots after hours, haven't you?"

"What was that form though! That was crazy!"

"Yeah! I've never seen you do that during practice!"

"Yeah what the heck Kuroko! I heard that you can dunk now too?"

"Has Kagami been giving you tips from America? Or is it Aomine who's been training you?"

"That was seriously amazing! Did you see Midorima's face? Takao's too! They didn't even think of defending you!"

"I guess the hawk eye isn't twenty-twenty. Only hindsight is!"

"Shut up, Izuki!"

"I can't believe we won!"

"Let's go celebrate!"

"Yeah!"

"Hey, has anyone seen Kuroko?"

"…. EH?!"

Without Seirin knowing, Kuroko managed to sneak off. The Kirisaki Daiichi vs Touou game was going on now and that was where everyone else was leaving the court that they had just played their match in empty. He made his way closer to the scoreboard. 102 to 101. Kuroko smiled.

With his back to the scoreboard, he pulled out his phone to take a selfie.

'Image of Kuroko smiling with the scoreboard in the background. I finally beat the buzzer. – Kuroko.' He sent it along knowing that with the time difference, it was around 3 in the morning for Kagami and he wouldn't receive a reply anytime soon. He really couldn't help the smile plastered on his face, what happened during the match passing like snapshots through his mind. It was a high he wanted to keep going.

_'Image of Kuroko smiling with the scoreboard in the background. I will go all out in our match if you win Touou. Hope you at least made sure that Midorima hadn't used that lip gloss before. Heard he gets ulcers easily. – Tetsu-tan.' _

_'Go all out? I look forward to the little shadow's attempt at playing the spider's web better than the original. Call it whatever you want, you stole my web technique but I've been using it longer than you have. Watch out for sharp elbows and ankle breaks, Tetsu-tan. Let's hope nobody gets too hurt. – Mako-tan.' _

Kirisaki Daiichi managed to exploit Daiki's injury and won Touou by just three points thus proceeding into the next round to play against Seirin. Kuroko and Hanamiya continued to exchange trash talks through text but they have yet to meet up since the semi-final match.

That weekend, Kuroko spent his time on a neighbourhood street court watching Aomine, Kise, and Midorima vent their frustration through basketball. Many were shocked at how the three prominent teams with the famous miracles were all out of the running. Momoi had found out that even Akashi expressed his surprise at the final match for the interhigh qualifier from the Tokyo region. Apparently, Akashi was not informed of Kuroko's new ability and had made wrong calculation.

Whatever it was, whether uninformed or lack of faith in Kuroko's abilities, Kuroko was excited that he managed to knock the miracles off their pedestal once more.

On court, Aomine, Kise, and Midorima continued to rant and make fun of each other to get over their misery. Their plays were really sloppy and the three were more focused on fooling around than challenging each other. Kuroko wouldn't call it a waste of time but it was definitely amusing to watch Midorima try to do a lay up then bending his back backwards in an attempt to mock Aomine.

Momoi and Kuroko sat by the side sipping milkshakes in the shade. Momoi would cheer and jeer occasionally while Kuroko chipped in with insults.

"Shintaro-cchi is going to attempt a dunk? Let me stand on the side casually doing nothing because it's impossible that he's going to score." Kise taunted failing his arms around pretending to defend nothing.

Midorima, knowing it was a jibe from when he didn't defend Kuroko's three, shot back at the blond. "Oh look at me I can copy anyone!" Midorima folded his body in half backwards and attempted a half-assed shot from behind the backboard. "The only one who can copy me, is me." He announced really seriously and pushed his glasses up as a habit.

"Shin you asshole!"Aomine growled and snatched the ball away to shoot at the hoop at the other end. Aomine copied Midorima's form and the ball went insanely high but over the board to land in the bushes. Aomine then mirrored Midorima's signature glasses-push-up. "Today's lucky item is no shit, so I'm going to miss every shot today."

Momoi burst out laughing but went to fetch the ball as Midorima and Aomine continued to bicker. She dribbled a little towards the three and decided to join the fun.

"I am absolute! Kneel." she announced in the deepest voice she could manage. Aomine, Kise and Midorima exchanged looks before pretending to fall to the ground - as dramatic as possible in Kise's case, and as half-assed as possible in Midorima's case. Aomine crashed to the ground lazily and groaned.

"Ahhhh my ankle is broken!" Kise cried theatrically, prompting Aomine to launch a kick towards the model's face in annoyance at the overacting. Kuroko couldn't help but be amused, but also surprised at the light mood his friends were in despite losing their matches. Never in his dreams would he ever thought they would recover so quickly from a loss. He thought back to last year when the miracles were hardly friends and everyone only had faith in their own abilities. He remembered the tears shed when they each had lost for the first time, and to see them so positive and eager to play again brought a smile to Kuroko's face.

The others must have seen the look on Kuroko's face and were spurred to continue the silliness.

"I'm so lazy to move unless someone feeds me. So I'm just going to lie here and defend." Aomine announced and started waving his arms and legs on the ground as if he were a starfish.

"Misdirection!" Momoi called out before stepping on top of Aomine's stomach, kicking off, and then attempting to shoot at the basket in some weird form.

"Satsuki you asshole! Don't step on me that hurt!"

"Wow Daiki-cchi I cant believe how rude you are. Ankle break!"

"You fucking shit! Don't kick at me!" Aomine tried to dodge but tripped over himself trying to get off the floor.

"The only one who can trip me, is me."

"Shut up Shin! Don't make me eat your lucky item of the day!"

Kuroko managed to snap a couple of photos which he sent off that night.

_'Image of Daiki-kun, Ryota-kun and Shintaro-kun in the midst of falling to the ground while Satsuki-chan approach them with the ball using ankle break because she is absolute. Hope you feel proud of how much Satsuki-chan has learnt from you, Seijuro-kun. – Tetsuya.' _

_'Image of Aomine failing around on the ground like a starfish. Atsushi-kun, did you teach Daiki-kun this move? Please educate him on better ways to defend, please. – Kuro-chin.' _

_'Image of Ryouta-kun, Daiki-kun, Shintaro-kun and Satsuki-chan facing forward standing side by side looking really serious, all in the same pose copying Kuroko's three-point shot form. Look at the lights I need to deal with while you're gone. – Kuroko.' _

_'Image of Ryouta-kun, Daiki-kun, Shintaro-kun and Satsuki-chan facing forward standing side by side looking really serious, all in the same pose copying Kuroko's three-point shot form. I have created an army. They call me senpai. – Tetsu-tan.' _


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Warning, some sexual content this chapter.

* * *

Sunday found Kuroko at a local library with Hanamiya. Both somehow came to the same conclusion that they shouldn't spend any time practicing basketball with each other to protect whatever trade secrets for their match in the coming week. Instead, Kuroko had a strategy prepared and had engaged Shuutoku's Takao to help him with practice since the point guard was a similar height to Hanamiya. Takao was surprised at Kuroko's request but if it was to take down Kirisaki Daiichi, it was worth it. The match would determine which school would represent their region in Interhigh to go up against Yosen and Rakuzan, both whom have qualified.

Weekends used to be time spent at Kagami's, with Kuroko attempting to help the red-head keep up to date with homework and lessons. However, since the new term, Kuroko's weekends had freed up leaving him to meet up with Hanamiya instead.

"I need help with math." Followed by "Fine. I need to head down to the library to find some reference books. You're coming with me." And "fine." Was how the two found themselves studying side by side on a Sunday afternoon. Studying with Hanamiya was almost a one-eighty from his sessions with Kagami. Hanamiya was one year ahead of Kuroko, a genius, and a great help when Kuroko had questions. His studies have never been better and Kuroko mentally thanked the other for it.

"Why do you need to use this formula instead of this one?" Kuroko scooted closer to get Hanamiya's attention. The other boy looked up from his reading immediately to scan the math question.

"It's hard to explain such simple things. Isn't it obvious? Can't you see that this equation breaks up in this manner and you have to use the formula for this to differentiate the first part?" Hanamiya leaned over to gesture at the question.

"Ah. I see. Thank you for explaining it in such a polite manner without insulting my intelligence, Mako-tan." Kuroko turned to give Hanamiya a deadpanned look.

For some reason, the older boy spluttered and swatted at Kuroko's face. "Yeah whatever. Now tell me if you have any background knowledge on Korea's involvement in World War 2."

Kuroko raised a brow at how awkward Hanamiya's movements were but decided to let it go. "There's a book on the last isle referencing some leaders and their sacrifice. I'm sure you'll be able to find it on your own."

"Come on, don't be a brat. I made the cheat sheet for you. Go grab it for me."

Hanamiya grinned while Kuroko glared.

"Say please." Kuroko tried.

"No." Hanamiya continued grinning. Kuroko continued glaring.

"I made the cheat sheet for you." Hanamiya repeated. Kuroko weighed the favours.

"You passed me your old cheat sheet. It's not like you made is specifically for me."

"Hmmm…" Hanamiya still had a broad grin on his face and Kuroko could clearly tell he was being played with. "Well, I guess I'll take my cheat sheet back then." The older boy reached for the piece of paper, while Kuroko pressed the paper hard down on the table refusing to let go of the god-sheet.

"You used ankle break on me. This was payment for that." Kuroko argued.

"Nope! Ankle break was for the bounce pass practice, and I gave you milkshake to top it off." Hanamiya tried tugging on the sheet again but it didn't budge. "You know that favour has been paid."

"I still have the bruises."

"And I'm still feeling thirsty from not finishing my milkshake. Want to spit that back out? If you can't even measure how much you owe me, we shouldn't even bother with favours for each other." Kuroko looked at Hanamiya's raised brows and knew Hanamiya was calling him stupid without saying it.

"Fine. Fine. I'll go get the book." Kuroko sighed knowing the other was right. He went to grab the book. Kuroko remembered how the front and spine looked like, but not the title. It took him 5 minutes to find it. When he brought it back to the table, Hanamiya was fiddling with Kuroko's phone. Hanamiya was unpredictable at best and Kuroko found himself really worried about what the other had done while he was away.

"What did you do?" Kuroko immediately reached out for his phone but Hanamiya moved it away.

"Nervous, Tetsu-tan? What could I have done with your phone in just 5 minutes?" Hanamiya taunted with the same stupid smile on his face. "I could have texted your coach telling her that you've been injured and won't be able to play the next match. Maybe I texted your mum and said something really embarrassing."

"That's not funny, Mako-tan." Kuroko was just slightly irritated. He really wanted his phone back. How did Hanamiya break through his passcode in the first place?!

"Hmmm… Maybe I texted your little red to shit talk him. Wouldn't that be funny, Tetsu-tan? Do you think he would be worried that you're in trouble? Or would he be pissed and punish you?" Hanamiya used a foot to push Kuroko away while his fingers worked at the phone. The Kirisaki Daiichi captain actually swiped his thumb across the fingerprint reader and unlocked Kuroko's phone. How in the world?!

Kuroko could only blink, stunned. On one hand, he was irritated at the possibilities of what Hanamiya could have done. On the other hand, he was surprised that the other had cracked through his passcode. Also, Kuroko cursed his short arms.

"Maybe I texted yellow to tell him you have a crush on him. He would be so delighted and absolutely clingy." Hanamiya pressed some buttons on the phone but Kuroko was unable to see or guess what was being pressed.

"Please stop." He took another swipe at the phone only for Hanamiya to dodge. He tried a kick to Hanamiya's shin but the other had shifted his leg just in time and Kuroko's foot met with the hard wood of the chair's leg.

Hanamiya had a creepy look of excitement. "Or, I could have sent the American a little text telling him how upset and destroyed you were after he left you and your little team without a light. Maybe he'll rush back from all the guilt of knowing hard you've been working while everyone continues to blame you for all their failures and how useless everyone's been saying you are-"

"That's enough, Makoto." He might have snarled out. Somewhere deep down, he wanted to hit the other.

Hanamiya smirked like a cat that ate a bunch of canaries but Kuroko was thoroughly pissed. He knew Hanamiya was goading him but bringing Kagami up… and with how accurate Hanamiya was to the truth… How was it so easy for Hanamiya to read him so well? He wasn't an easy person to see through but somehow the captain knew what would upset him the most. How and when did that happen?

Kuroko grit his teeth in silent fury.

"Just wanted to see how you'd react." Hanamiya shrugged as if nothing happened. "Have some faith. You know I'm not in a bad mood anyway."

Kuroko didn't say anything as Hanamiya slid his phone back to him, grabbed the book Kuroko brought back and went straight to reading it. Kuroko took a deep breath, he needed to take a short break to calm down. Breathe out. He looked over at Hanamiya who had a bored expression on his face, uncaring. Okay. Fine. Time to check the damage.

Unlocking his phone, Kuroko looked through the recently opened apps, and checked through his texts and social media apps. Nothing seemed out of place, and he wouldn't put it past Hanamiya to have done nothing just to play with his paranoia. After a couple of minutes of searching, Kuroko was about to give up when he finally went back to the home page and saw what Hanamiya did.

The background on his homepage was a photo of one of Hanamiya's raised, thick, black eyebrow.

Kuroko was stunned for a moment, confused by the sight. So… Hanamiya didn't do anything malicious? He didn't text anyone? It was just a prank? Was this it? Before he could consider any further, he heard a slight snigger coming from his right.

"You should have seen your face. You were fucking pissed but went straight into confusion. That was hilarious." Hanamiya's fist were clenched tight over his mouth, eyes sparkling with mirth as he tried not to laugh.

Kuroko took one more look at the photo on his background. The single eye brow fitted just nicely under a straight line of apps. It was so thick that it framed the icons. For the first time in a long time, Kuroko choked on his own laughter and wheezed out a chortle, unable to hold back how ridiculously funny the photo on his background was.

There was an eyebrow – Makoto's bushy eyebrow, filling up his entire screen.

The notorious spider of Kirisaki Daiichi had broken through his phone's pass code, added his own fingerprint, just to change his wallpaper to a hairy eyebrow.

After all that talk – the taunting and threats, there was a bushy black brow in high definition on his phone.

Kuroko burst out laughing which caused Hanamiya to laugh out loud as well. Both teens trying to hold back tears.

A loud "SHHHHHHHHHH" interrupted them. They both tried to hide the noises they were making to no avail.

"Fuck! We're in the library. Shut the fuck up and stop laughing so loud!" Hanamiya managed to rasp out, totally out of breath.

Kuroko hid his face on the table, trying to soften the noise he was making, but still unable to give any sort of spoken reply. His chest hurt from trying to stop the laughter and he felt like he couldn't breathe. His head felt light and he needed to get the silly image out of his head.

Apparently he was still tittering because Hanamiya pushed his head down further into the table and whispered a "Shhhhhhh" into his ear, amusement still clear in his tone.

"They're going to chase us out!" The bushy-brow teen continued to ruffle at Kuroko's hair and tug on his shirt to get him to quiet down.

"But… what should I do with this?" Kuroko managed to get out as he turned his phone towards Hanamiya, clearly displaying the eyebrow again. This time, Hanamiya didn't hold back and burst out a roar of laughter which sent Kuroko into a similar state as well.

They were both sent out of the library after packing their bags by a livid librarian.

The two continued their boisterous laughter while stumbling out onto the streets.

"That's the first time I've ever been thrown out of the library. Mako-tan is a bad influence." Kuroko was still a little breathless.

"Bullshit. You enjoyed it." Hanamiya was wiping off some tears from laughing too hard and had one arm slung around the smaller male to keep his balance. "Come on, it's time for dinner anyway."

"Maji is that way." Kuroko tried to walk left but Hanamiya had an arm around his neck and tugged him to the right.

"Oh come on. The ramen place is this way. I'm craving ramen." Hanamiya insisted and used his slightly larger built to pull Kuroko to the left. Kuroko wouldn't have any of that and was planting his feet firmly on the ground, dragging as much as he could.

"We had that the other night. And I really want a milkshake." Kuroko frowned and tried to dislodge himself from the headlock.

Hanamiya growled, upset with the resistance. "If we go for ramen, I'll treat you." He tried to bargain.

"Maji is in the direction of your house. If we go to Maji you'll get home quicker to finish up that essay you still haven't completed."

"If we go to Maji it'll be your treat."

"No way. We had ramen last time. It's only fair we go with Maji this time. You're being unreasonable, Mako-tan." Kuroko gave a flat look, he knew that Makoto knew that this was an unfair trade, so why did the other still need to push his luck?

"If we go to Maji, you're helping me with my report. I didn't get to check out that book in the end because you got us kicked out from the library." Hanamiya squinted his stupid looking eyebrows and Kuroko couldn't help but feel a little endeared by them. Fine. It wasn't that big a deal anyway.

"Fine. We go to Maji and I'll help you with your report."

"Fine." The captain's smirk was full blown as if this was the plan all along. Kuroko tried not to feel like an idiot for falling for it but at least he would get some vanilla milkshake tonight. He was in an amazingly good mood anyway.

They had dinner and spent some time chatting at Maji while they people-watched. Hanamiya liked to shit-talk strangers and Kuroko would try to counter-argue the points. The mood was light as they continued to enjoy the light-hearted weekend.

"See that guy over there? Mid-thirties, using a fake branded watch, too much hair gel and that hair colour is obviously from some bad dye. He's wearing a fake leather jacket in this weather, and he's speaking too kindly. Obviously he's trying to get that girl who's way out of his league. He's probably working in sales or jobless or something."

"I think you're wrong. They're speaking too familiarly for him to be trying for something with her. I think that the watch was a gift. That's why it's the only worn out item he's wearing. The rest of his belongings are somewhat new. The hair colour and leather jacket could mean he's trying to be more relatable to the younger generation. He could be a youth leader or a social worker or something. And I think the hair gel is fine and you're just being harsh about it."

"Fine, I concede your point on the old and new thing. The watch does look sentimental. But look at the girl. She's wearing pearl earrings and her watch is branded. Unless he's really interesting, I doubt they're a couple."

"They could be old school mates that took different paths. People of different background can still be friends you know." Kuroko reasoned. "But I don't think they're dating. His handphone wallpaper had a cat on it."

"And yours has an eyebrow from another male. What does that say about you?" Hanamiya snipped back and Kuroko returned with a glare, trying not to think about the image less he break out in laughter again.

"Ok they're dating for sure. I saw them play footsie under the table."

"Her feet bumped into his. That's not whatever you just mentioned."

Hanamiya turned to him with a smirk. "Ahh little Tetsu-tan. So unaware about the things of the adult world."

Kuroko scowled. "You're only a year older than me."

"And an adult." Hanamiya sat back, arrogant. "We know of things little children do not."

At this point, the male they were observing leaned over the table, used a hand to cup the lady's cheek and gave her a peck on the lips. She smiled and caressed his face, dropping another peck on his lips before letting him go.

"Case and point. I win." Hanamiya threw his hands to the side in a flourish to flaunt. Fine. Hanamiya just got lucky at reading this couple.

"Fine. They're a couple."

"You're pouting by the way."

"I'm not pouting." Kuroko made sure to fix his glare. "I don't pout."

"Hmmm pretty sure that was a pout. I read people well, you know?" Why did he hang out with such irritable people?

"Let's get going." Kuroko placed his milkshake on the tray and proceeded to clear the table. Hanamiya definitely knew Kuroko had enough of the conversation but didn't mention it as he too followed and cleared his tray. The two left Maji together.

"This way." Hanamiya directed and Kuroko followed, suddenly reminded they were heading over to Hanamiya's place to continue with their work. Kuroko had never been there before but he knew the general direction the Kirisaki Daiichi captain lived in.

It was quiet as the two walked side by side, without any need for conversation. It was usual and comfortable for them.

Kuroko thought back to the couple. They seemed like really different people. The guy seemed down to earth while she was a little classier. He seemed animated while she seemed really serious. They both appear to be happy though. How exactly were they suitable for each other? And what was with the leg thing under the table? He didn't see how something like that would be romantic or sexy. Wasn't it all about the breasts (Kuroko thanked God Daiki couldn't listen into his thoughts)? She did have some decently sized ones though. Or maybe it was a love at first sight thing like Ryouta always talked about. He wasn't going to entertain the star-aligned paradigm that Shintaro subscribed to.

What was this love thing actually?

Nothing could really explain why Kuroko himself had a particular affection for _him. _It definitely wasn't about the boobs or physical looks. Otherwise, Kuroko would have fallen for any one of the miracles seeing that most of them had an ideal body shape. It wasn't a love at first sight thing either – he knew his affection for his light grew over time. Shintaro-kun mentioned their star signs didn't match as well so that couldn't be it. How exactly did this work? Kuroko totally didn't understand.

And yet, he was deeply aware of the infinite space that the other took up in his mind and heart.

It's been 12 weeks and it seemed like Kuroko was the only one counting.

Whatever it was, Kuroko didn't have much time to ponder as they reached the steps of Hanamiya's apartment. The _adult's_ apartment was a simple, clean two bedroom unit with a rather big dining area and an attached kitchen. Next to the dining area was a carpeted area with a low coffee table. It was a rather similar set up as… another apartment he was familiar with.

"Nobody's home? Please excuse the intrusion." Kuroko removed his shoes at the entry and noticed the lack of any other footwear by the door.

"I live alone." Came the other's reply. Hanamiya didn't explain more so Kuroko didn't ask. Kuroko took a sit at the dining table while Hanamiya dropped his bag by a dining chair and disappeared into a room. "Please help yourself drinks!"

"You're supposed to be a good host, Mako-tan."

"Screw that. Get what you want on your own!" Kuroko felt a slight affection towards how casual Hanamiya was being. He was usually careful when going to someone else's house because he didn't want to seem disrespect or overstep his boundaries but if Hanamiya says it's alright… Kuroko felt his guard drop and started to relax in the new space. He helped himself to a glass and filled it up with water from the tap. He also opened the fridge out of curiosity.

"You have a lot of alcohol in here." He commented. Hanamiya had changed into causal clothes and emerged from what must be his bedroom to join Kuroko in the kitchen.

"I'm legal." He smirked. "Since I live alone, the guys come over to party once in awhile."

Kuroko nodded in reply and continued checking out the rest of the contents of the fridge while Hanamiya stood by and observed. There were some fresh fruits and other easy to cook processed items. There were about two packs of beer and some other coloured liquor.

"Are you curious?" Hanamiya asked. Kuroko wasn't too sure what the other was referring to: Why was Hanamiya living alone? Or what did alcohol taste like? Or why was that girl and guy together or howwhatwhy Kagami.

"There are many things I'm curious about." Kuroko decided to reply simply.

Hanamiya's smirk grew larger and Kuroko recognised the usual calculative gaze the other had whenever they were about to weigh in favours.

"I bet I can answer ever single one of Tetsu-tan's questions. I can really give you all the answers if you're willing to ask them."

Kuroko was pretty sure this was another game for the Spider. Hanamiya Makoto lived on reading others and trying to get the most unpredictable outcome and interesting reaction from his _prey_. Hanamiya often tried things on Kuroko just to guess his reaction or hope for an unexpected one – just like the incident in the library. Most of the time, Kuroko was willing to play along because he was curious about the other too.

He weighed out the pros and cons of this new challenge in his head. Pro – he'll get to understand some concepts he'd been pondering about. Con – he'd be divulging information that could make him vulnerable to someone who knew how to make the most of an advantage. Pro – Kuroko would get to understand Hanamiya's thoughts and views better. Con – Hanamiya was probably going to laugh at him or feed him alcohol despite him being underage. Another con – he would have to talk about Kagami.

Nope. No dice.

"I'm not that curious." Kuroko decided and tried to move out of the kitchen but was body blocked by the captain.

"Hmmm. But I am." Hanamiya had the look on his face – the one that alerted Kuroko he was slowly but surely falling into a trap. "Ok let's try this instead. You can tell me how many questions you had on mind and if I guess the questions correctly, you have to confirm it honestly."

What was in it for Hanamiya? What was the captain seeing that Kuroko wasn't? Hanamiya was being rather insistent but Kuroko couldn't see an equal payoff. On the surface, it didn't seem like Hanamiya would get much out of this agreement.

Ahh. Ok. Kuroko understood. Right so this was why. Kuroko wasn't an easy person to read so Hanamiya must have made some guesses about Kuroko after observing him all this time and so Hanamiya wanted to have a confirmation that he was reading Kuroko right.

Hmmmm… was it worth it?

"Fine. I'll throw in one more since you seem unconvinced." Hanamiya frowned but Kuroko was rather sure it was all just an act. He was still in the trap after all. "For the upcoming match, I won't hurt any of your team mates."

And now the scale tipped over entirely again. This was way too big a favour for the price Hanamiya initially proposed. Kuroko noted that the captain had said "I" and not "my team". Still, it was a huge favour. What was the captain playing at? Kuroko glared at the other, knowing that the other knew this was something Kuroko couldn't say no to. But he also knew that the other knew that Kuroko knew this was a trap. So was Kuroko willing to play anyway? He was aware that there was a trap perfectly set in front of him and he was willingly stepping into it. Damn Hanamiya and his mind games.

Urgh. It's been a long day of mind games with Makoto. He really needed a break.

Fine.

Fine.

Fine.

"Fine. I accept." How could he not? Kuroko folded his arms and took a couple of steps back to lean against a kitchen counter, mentally preparing himself from the onslaught that was Hanamiya Makoto. Stupid games.

But Kuroko enjoyed the challenge.

"Good. I enjoy it when you're being so cooperative, Tetsu-tan." Hanamiya stood with his hands in his pockets, same cunning smile on his face.

"And you're being really obvious, Mako-tan." It was a weak comeback and Hanamiya simply shrugged.

"How many questions?"

Kuroko didn't hesitate to answer. "Three."

Hanamiya glared. "Oh come on. It's only the first question. Be a good boy and answer honestly like you said you would."

"Fine. Four." Kuroko look away while Hanamiya continued to read him.

"Ok. Fine. Four." Hanamiya nodded. "Your first question was about why I currently live alone, right? My parents work overseas and they decided they wanted to rent out our main estate. So they gave me some allowance to buy a smaller apartment. I chose this one because it's close to the University that I want to go to. That's why I'm living alone."

Kuroko glared at Hanamiya all the way through the explanation. The captain didn't even wait for him to confirm if that question was one he had in mind before going into the explanation. He could practically hear Hanamiya saying "I don't even need your confirmation for this question because you were being so fucking obvious."

Yes, internal Hanamiya was still swearing even though the real one had vowed to stop being so vulgar around Kuroko.

Without waiting for Kuroko to say anything, Hanamiya continued. "Your second question was probably something about the taste of alcohol, why would someone want to drink alcohol, or who are the people who drink with me. Which one was it? Never mind, I'll answer them all. You see, when adults get stressed or want to have some fun, they drink alcohol because it has a relaxing component in it and it removes inhibition a little to allow the person to feel a sense of euphoria. The people who drink with me are all legal and you're familiar with most of them. I'm sure you can come to your own conclusions from that."

"Are you going to be talking to yourself for the entire night?" Kuroko was getting slightly irritated that the other was being so full of himself.

"I might since I'm pretty sure I'm 100 percent right."

"Why are we even playing then?" Kuroko frowned.

"Because I was to see your face once I've shown you how simple and easy it is to read you even though nobody has been able to do it before. No, rather - nobody has bothered to understand you to this extent before. I want to see that face when you come to the realisation that you're not a shadow, everyone else just treats you as one." Hanamiya moved closer to Kuroko, intensity and resentment in his gaze.

Kuroko had no idea what to say to that. He didn't want to think about it and spiral down a bitter path. He wasn't a spiteful or vindictive person, but he wanted to hear more about what Hanamiya had to say. Kuroko found himself wanting Hanamiya to guess everything right and prove that there was someone out there who wanted to invest into a shadow like himself.

"Fine. Please continue, Mako-tan."

Hanamiya stood across him, one hand on the counter that Kuroko was leaning his back against. The other was a little close but Kuroko focused on the other's words instead.

"Your third question was about the couple earlier. You were either curious about the kiss, the footsie, or how two people so different could be in a relationship. So which one was it huh? I watched you while we were walking over to my place. You looked confused, conflicted. Like you trying to justify something you felt. Or you were confused about the idea of feelings in the first place. Especially after I called you a kid, you looked affronted but took some time to ponder something.

My final answer is this – you were either pondering about the philosophy of love, or you were hella curious about the sexual aspects of the adult world. Again, I'll answer them both." Hanamiya moved even closer until Kuroko had to strain his neck to look up at the other. He could feel the heat from where Hanamiya's arm was in contact with his. He could smell a slight musky book-like smell from the other.

"So what is love?" Hanamiya's voice was a little softer and deeper. "It could mean different things for different people but I don't care about them. Let's talk about you. You're loyal. You love supporting people. For you, love is being able to give. But you're selfish too. You want to receive. You want to be special. You want to be seen. It's not about looks or money or fame or the chase for you. To you, love means giving everything to make that person the light of your world, and you want the same in return. Simple."

As if it was possible, Hanamiya moved even closer. Knees pressed against his own and he had to bend a little backwards to accommodate Hanamiya's weight on him. He could feel the other's heat and overwhelming presence and breath and the other's gaze and-

"If love was about all that, what's sex even for? You're a logical person. You need to understand concepts. What do kisses do? Why did they couple even play with their feet at Maji? Let me explain to you how sexual intimacy adds another layer to love, my curious little Tetsuya."

Kuroko was having a little trouble taking it all in. The words made sense. He understood the idea and explanation. Having Hanamiya stand so close to him was confusing him so much. No matter how familiar they had become, they were relatively new friends. But Kuroko's heart was racing and his breath was caught in his throat. This never happened with Kagami. Was this adrenaline or fear? Fight or flight?

"This is how you build tension. There's a purpose to everything and I'll explain it step by step to you. Now listen, Tetsu-tan because I won't slow down. Firstly, physical closeness and tone creates a mood. Notice how close I'm standing? Notice how that allows me to talk to you at this volume? It doesn't happen with just anyone, does it? It's special, thus causing an increase in tension. I don't need to be a model like yellow, or a light like blue to be able to make you feel like this."

Hanamiya's free hand came up to cup Kuroko's cheek. The hand felt cold against Kuroko's warm face. His heart was racing so fast that he could hear the thundering beats in his ear. He could see the strands of hair on Hanamiya's head. His eyes focused on the shape of Hanamiya's lips because they were just right there. So close and such an interesting shape and how pink it was in contrast to Hanamiya's white skin-

"Can you feel the difference in temperature between your face and my palm? Because of the intensity of the situation, the feeling of the coldness of my hand has been magnified, hasn't it? Surely your heart feels like its going to explode. Just a simple touch to your cheek and you're feeling this intensity of heat. This was what he did to her at Maji wasn't it? So simple, and yet so _heavy. _Can you feel my thumb move against your skin? So smooth, isn't it? I wonder if Tetsu-tan feels a tingle down his body?

"Have you ever kissed, Tetsu-tan? Can you imagine? I'm just touching you with a finger. What if I come closer? What if I bend forward a little more? Will you be able to feel my muscles moving? Will you be able to feel my heat seeping from your chest down to your toes?"

Hanamiya moved both hands to cradle his face. Majority of the other's weight leaned on his pelvis area. He felt pinned, securely held. Stable. Enclosed. _Treasured._

"Step by step, Tetsu-tan. Understand it. Do your thoughts make sense? I'm not doing anything grand nor special. But you're feeling something totally different from the ambiguity at the start, aren't you? I'm trapping you but do you feel trapped? I'm in control but are you scared? You don't know what's going to happen next and yet you're allowing me to do this. Its amazing to see trust in such a tangible form isn't it? Are you ready Tetsuya? I'm going to show you how a kiss works. I'll break it down for you slowly. Please keep up Tetsu-tan and remember I don't have all the time to slow down for you."

Kuroko knew what a kiss was but nothing could really describe what happened factually when Hanamiya's lips touched his. It was a by fact a kiss, but a simple word couldn't describe the term. Oh… so this was why people kissed – because there was no other way to truly understand the word other than through experiencing it.

Hanamiya's breath ghosted over his lips first before he felt a soft pressure and slight heat on his lips that was totally unlike consuming food. The tension that had built up and Hanamiya's words resounded in his brain creating this new, indescribable sensation on his lips.

"Amazing isn't it? How the body and mind work in tandem? Are my lips soft? Are they rough? Look how I can change the mood with some pressure, Tetsuya." Hanamiya put more pressure and his lips felt wetter, hotter, _moremoremore. _Kuroko groaned and instinctively pushed back, giving back.

Hanamiya hummed in praise. "Tetsuya learns fast." He spoke and kissed at the same time, breath puffing into his mouth with each word. Kuroko felt a warmth pooling deep within. "Close your eyes, this is a tactile and auditory learning experience." Kuroko complied. "That's a good boy. Feel this." Kuroko felt more pressure and Hanamiya's lips parting. It was hotter and wetter and there was spit but Kuroko groaned feeling the intensity jump higherandhigherand he _groaned _into Hanamiya's mouth and felt the other's body _shiver _in response. The feedback pushed him deeper into the haze of his mind as his hands grasped onto the other's arm to steadysteadysteady himself.

Something hot and wet and smooth grazed his tongue and he moaned at the feeling and thought of Hanamiya's tongue caressing his own and the idea made him pant in want. What was going on how was this happening-

"Feel that Tetsuya? Lesson two, French kissing." Hanamiya's voice was hoarse and breathy. The other swallowed before continuing, tongue still casually exploring while it continued to form words. "This is how you increase the intensity of a kiss. Can you taste me, Tetsuya? Can you feel my tongue flick against yours? You're letting me in, letting me explore where ever I want to. Such a compliant boy. So good for me when you're like this aren't you? But don't you like a little challenge? Don't you like to surprise me? Give it a try, Tetsu-tan. Fight back."

Kuroko moaned as Hanamiya's tongue started to methodically taste and check the inside of his mouth, under his tongue on the roof at the sides along his teeth and all of a sudden Hanamiya's tongue stopped and retracted. The other's lips weren't moving and there was a lack of heat and intensity and movement and Kuroko _whined._

Copying the other, his hands slowly reached up and cupped Makoto's face. His breath was coming in pants and his eyes were glazed and heavy as he looked into the other's forest green ones. They were sparkling with mischief and daring him to challenge back.

Fine.

Fine.

Kuroko pushed back, teeth clacking. His tongue tasted the other's mouth and explored like Makoto did. The bumps along the roof of the Makoto's mouth, the heat under the Makoto's tongue. He needed to make the other pant and moaned like he did. His hands tugged against the strands of hair at the nape of Makoto's neck and the other opened up a little more for him. But he needed more intensity, he needed Makoto to respond. Kuroko growled and pulled hard at Makoto's hair and the other _moaned _oh so loudly.

Yes.

Kuroko's other hand continued to explore where he felt heat – down Makoto's sides, up his front and oh it was warm here and Kuroko slipped a hand under the front of Makoto's shirt and-

"Naughty boy, Tetsu-tan. This wasn't part of the lesson." Hanamiya's hand locked onto his and pull his arm out from under the other's shirt then proceeded to moved Kuroko's hand behind his back and pressed it firmly onto the counter. "Focus on the lesson, Tetsu-tan. Do you now understand why people look for physical intimacy? How it's different from love, but also how it can compliment feelings of affection?"

Kuroko panted hard and thought about what just happened.

What just happened?

Suddenly, he felt a sharp tug at his nape and was forced to look up into Hanamiya's eyes. "Pay attention, Tetsuya. Remember this feeling and take time to process it. You're smart. I hope that this experience will answer your third question.

As for the fourth question, you're probably confused about your feelings for tall red, aren't you? You have no idea why you like him. You both are fundamentally different in character. There's hardly any similarities at all. And yet, you feel an affection for him. You've never felt physically attracted to him though, right? So why? Why him? Actually, does it really matter?

Listen closely: Love has to go two ways for it to be successful. Just because he's your light doesn't mean you're his. You've always been a shadow to him. Think about what means for any relationship you want to pursue with him." Hanamiya stepped away and Kuroko suddenly noticed the lack of strength in his legs. Without Hanamiya's weight pressing him down or holding him up, he crumbled onto the kitchen floor and sat there.

"Now, when you're done processing, come outside and help me with my essay like you promised. Don't make me wait for too long, Tetsuya. I'll drag you out if I have to."

With that, Hanamiya left the kitchen and Kuroko plunged into deep thought, slowly sorting out the archive of emotions that Kagami Taiga abandoned within him.

It made sense. Kagami only saw him as a shadow. Kagami didn't feel for Kuroko the same way Kuroko felt for him. It made sense, and yet, Kuroko couldn't let go. Kagami's kindness, his cooking, his basketball, his presence. How was it possible for love to make sense when Hanamiya explained it, but make so little sense when it came to reality?

Half an hour later, Kuroko came out of the kitchen with thoughts about Kagami still unresolved in his mind, and with his lips feeling the phantom nibbles from Makoto's mouth. He would ponder over this another day. Tonight was the time for math and history. Kuroko joined Hanamiya at the table to complete his end of the bargain, and suddenly had the realisation that he paid a lot more for this favour despite Hanamiya's promise of not harming Seirin.

That night, Kuroko stayed in Hanamiya's guest room and dreamt about a reality where his light made him a light in their world as well.

Perhaps… just like Mako-tan did for him.


	4. Chapter 4

Kuroko was a mess the week leading up to the match against Kirisaki Daiichi.

He couldn't concentrate in class, he couldn't focus during training. His mind kept gravitating towards two things – Kagami and Makoto. On Monday, he found himself sitting in his classroom while the rest of his classmates returned from lunch. Only then did he realise that he had totally missed the lunch period because he was lost in thought.

During training on Tuesday, Izuki tried to pass a ball to Mitobe only for the ball to smack right into the side of Kuroko's head. Apparently, they both didn't see Kuroko standing there, and Kuroko's mind wasn't in the game. Whenever he tried to concentrate, all he could focus on was the tingling sensation on his lips and the phantom touches along his tongue. His mind would slowly go back to brooding over Kagami and what ifs and whys. This continued all the way to Friday and Riko being concerned about the match the next day, decided to call in the cavalry.

Why did his heart choose Kagami? That made no sense. The two of them were really different despite their love for basketball. So what if he had the realisation that he had serious feelings for the redhead? The other was overseas and it was unlikely anything would come out of his feelings. It was useless to feel this way but Kuroko couldn't help it.

It was in the midst of his jumble of thoughts when he got suddenly accosted by a heavy body colliding with his.

"Tetsu-kun!"

"Eh? Satsuki-chan? " What was she doing here?

"Thank God you're finally here. He was out of sorts all throughout the week." Riko sighed and Kuroko saw the rest of the team nodding in agreement. Had it really been so bad?

A weight fell across his shoulders and dark skin appeared in his peripheral vision. Aomine slung an arm around his shoulder and the taller male was heavy.

"Don't worry, Seirin. We'll take over from here and make sure he's ready to play for you guys tomorrow." Aomine proceeded to bodily drag Kuroko off court. "Oi! Ryou! Go get Tetsu's shit from the locker room."

"You don't have to boss me around, Daiki-cchi." Kise grumbled but complied anyway. Soon enough, Kuroko found Seirin waving goodbye to him with a reminder from Hyuuga to be punctual and focused for tomorrow's match. Riko warned Aomine to have Kuroko back before ten so that he could get enough rest. Kuroko didn't understand why everyone was trying to mother him but it didn't seem like he had any choice in the matter.

Ten minutes later found Kuroko, Aomine, Kise and Momoi at a nearby Basketball court. Five minutes later, Midorima arrived, already in sports attire.

"Get your head out of the clouds, Tetsuya-cchi! You need to help me take revenge on Kirisaki Daiichi!" Kise reminded and toss a ball over his shoulder to Kuroko who caught it instinctively.

"We'll be playing two on two. You and Daiki against Ryouta and I. I will be playing more of a support role than a scoring role." Midorima announced.

"I don't know what you're suddenly caught up about, Tetsu. But if there's anything that can get you to focus, it's playing basketball with a light. You're natural at that and it should get you back in shape. I'm going to be your light this match, Tetsu, so focus on me alright?"

Kuroko didn't know why they were all being so serious. It's been years since Midorima took on a supportive role, and Aomine asking Kuroko to rely on the other caused all sorts of strange memories to resurface.

"The legendary duo that could never be beaten." Kise taunted then directed a question to his partner for this match. "Do you think we can finally trounce them because Tetsuya-cchi isn't on form?"

"Hmm. Aquarius is ranked last today. And the other blockhead thought he didn't need Tetsuya's specialised passing. We won't lose to such _noobs."_ Midorima pushed his glasses up on his nose.

"Wow where did you learn such a word, Shin? Such unusual vocabulary coming from you. All I hear is talk and no action. And Ryou? Eat shit." Aomine took the ball from Kuroko who was still not comprehending the current situation.

"Have fun, Tetsu-kun! Don't worry, they're being like that because boys are dumb and they don't know how to express themselves better. They're just worried about you and want to help." Momoi offered and smiled kindly at Kuroko.

Before Kuroko could reply to any of that, Kise had stolen the ball from Aomine and made a dash for the hoop with Aomine immediately following behind. Kise passed the ball to Midorima who waited for the right moment to throw towards the backboard, leading to a alley-oop to Kise and the blond made a beautiful dunk into the hoop.

Without waiting, Aomine took the ball and threw it to Kuroko who was just standing still at the edge of the court, not yet participating. Kuroko was instinctively jolted out of his musings and used a ignited bounce pass under Kise's defence into Aomine's waiting hands leading to a flashy around-the-world move and then a dunk. Kise hurried on the turn over and passed to Midorima who was conveniently standing near Kuroko, so Kuroko simply reached out for a steal. An ignite pass led to a easy lay-up by Aomine. Kuroko saw Kise's mouth tilt upwards in amusement and knew the blond had done that on purpose to get him involved in the game. Fine.

"Nice pass, Tetsu! Show me where you want me to go next!" Aomine encouraged and Kuroko obeyed. The next possession, Kuroko flipped the ball above Kise leading to an alley-oop by Aomine. It was so easy. Kuroko's tells and habits were ingrained into his ex-light and Aomine was scoring so effortlessly. A little shift in Kuroko's posture and Aomine knew where to position himself. Kuroko loved it. He didn't even need to signal. He hardly had to plan. He knew Aomine's capabilities like the back of his hand, and creating plays with the light was so very, very easy.

And so very, very familiar. Like Kagami was. But this was Aomine. And Kuroko knew him too. It was effortless to shift his playstyle from the light that was Kagami to his first light. Kuroko missed playing like this and he enjoyed it immensely.

He missed Kagami but Aomine was stealing his attention just fine.

Back and forth they went. At a point in time, Aomine went into zone and Kise matched him. The two moved really quickly but Kuroko kept pace with his passing, used to this speed as he had to support Kagami in zone previously.

"Tetsu!" Aomine kept calling out to him, making it easier for Kuroko to keep up when the light zoomed into position. Midorima kept getting his passes stolen since the green-haired shooter wasn't used to playing with someone in zone. Kuroko felt his spirits lifting with each ball he stole, and with each fist-bump exchanged with his light.

It was fun. And nostalgic. He really wanted to play like this again.

He missed Kagami.

But, he also enjoyed the thrill of being point-guard with Seirin now. He relished at being the player who scored the buzzer-beater. Kuroko felt thankful for his miracles who had stepped in to cheer him up, but knew he had to face reality too.

"Thank you for tonight, everybody." Kuroko gave them a deep bow at the end of the game. "Daiki-kun is an amazing light and I'm glad I still get to be your shadow every now and then."

Aomine grinned and scratched at his blushing cheek. "Anytime you want, Tetsu. You just need to ask."

Kuroko nodded and turned to Midorima. "Shintaro-kun should stick to playing the shooting-guard. But I'm thankful you would step into the role just to make this game happen. Thank you for your sacrifice and time."

"Idiot! You don't have to say all that. Whatever." Midorima too, had blushed and turned away like the tsundere he was.

"Thank you, Ryouta-kun, for being amazing at everything and working hard to keep up with Daiki-kun and I. No one else could do it."

Kise laughed and gave Kuroko a huge hug for the sweet words. Kuroko tried his hardest to get away from the clingy blond.

"And most importantly, Satsuki-chan. Thank you for arranging all this and always watching out for me. I really appreciate it." Kuroko stared seriously into the young lady's eyes as she burst into tears and clung onto Kuroko, fighting for body space with Kise.

"You're so sweet, Tetsu-kun!"

"I guess this means group hug time." Aomine shrugged and pulled Midorima in with one arm, and the rest of them with the other arm thus squishing all of them together.

"Oi! Get your hands off me!" Midorima complained but his arms automatically went around Kise and Momoi.

"I think someone is touching my butt."

"Sorry, Ryouta-kun. But I have nowhere else to place my hands."

"I think that's considered molestation, Tetsuya-cchi."

"Eh?! Ryou-kun is molesting Tetsu-kun?!"

"What! NO! Satsuki-cchi you've got it wrong! Tetsuya-cchi is molesting me!"

"Please don't say it that way, Ryouta-kun. It was involuntary."

"Yeah, Ryou. Who would willingly want to grope you?"

"Eh?! I'm a model! Lots of people would want to grope me!"

"Wow, you're so full of yourself."

"Ryouta-kun is such a pervert."

"I've personally never wanted to touch Ryou-kun inappropriately before."

"Eeeew Satsuki why would you even say such a thing!"

"Shut up, stupid Daiki! No one asked you!"

At the end of the night, Kise walked home with Kuroko while Aomine accompanied Momoi home. Midorima excused himself at the earliest possible moment and disappeared from the group. Kuroko reached home before ten, dropped a thank you message to Riko, before preparing to go to bed. Lips tingling, he sent one last message before falling asleep.

_'Remember you end of the deal, Mako-tan. I look forward to playing on the same court as you. Please congratulate me when Seirin wins tomorrow. – Tetsu-tan.'_

_'Satsuki has informed me that you're a little out of sorts. Stay strong, Tetsuya, I'll handle it. See you soon. – Seijuro-kun.'_

Saturday brought the finals between Seirin and Kirisaki Daiichi. The stands were packed to the brim and there were even some fans who came with banners. Kise had brought one that said "Number 11 is my Number 1" and forced Aomine to hold the other end of the banner. Midorima and Momoi stood between the two, feeling embarrassed at the cheesy banner.

Kuroko entered the court behind the rest of Seirin, armed with his lucky item of the day – a first aid kit. It was as if Oha Asa knew Seirin needed it today. The Kirisaki Daiichi team came out from an opposite entrance with Hanamiya leading the group. It was the first time since _that_ night that Kuroko saw the other. Flashbacks to warm skin, a musky scent, soft lips, and pleasant shivers down his spine assaulted Kuroko but he deftly pushed them aside, head already in the game. He had practiced for this and he wanted to make a statement.

Hanamiya had a smug look on his face and Kuroko knew why. The Captain probably thought he knew all of Kuroko's tricks and that Kirisaki Daiichi had this game in the bag. What Hanamiya didn't know was that Kuroko had been practicing with Takao too. He couldn't wait to see the look of surprise or fury on Mako-tan's face.

When Hanamiya decided to come over to Seirin's bench, Kuroko felt his heart skip but also the dread settling at the bottom of his stomach.

'Please don't cause a scene' was his current mantra but he knew nothing could stop the chaos Hanamiya decided to bring along with him.

"Well if it isn't the team without their star player." Hanamiya decided to begin with. At once, Seirin glared and growled.

"Just go back to your bench, Hanamiya. Nobody wants you here." Hyuuga postured defensively. "We know your style and we're ready for it."

"Hmmm... being ready doesn't mean you're going to win. I've looked at every one of you and none of you spark any motivation in me to play seriously today. Seems like I won't even bother pulling out my usual stunts since you guys are all so boring." Hanamiya shrugged.

"We won you last year. It shouldn't be hard to do it again this year." Izumi supported from behind Hyuuga.

Hanamiya waved the remark aside. "That was when you had that tall red-head. You're just a bunch of gloomy mid-tier players now."

"And what are you going to do if we do win today?" Kuroko decided to step in from slightly behind Hanamiya. Seirin all jumped in surprise at the sudden appearance of their phantom but Hanamiya just turned around nonchalantly.

"Oh no, I didn't see you there." Hanamiya spoke monotonously. He then scoffed and glared at Kuroko, the usual fond gaze absent since they were in front of others. "As if I'd say that! I noticed you from the start little Tetsu-tan. I will take you down today."

"Was that a threat?!" "Don't mock Kuroko with names!" came Seirin's collective cries of outrage. Hanamiya proceeded to roll his eyes at the predictable behaviour while Kuroko rolled his eyes at Hanamiya's goading.

"Whatever. You guys bore me." Hanamiya turned to walk away but before doing so, he reached a hand towards Kuroko's cheek and cupped it like he did _that_ night. The cold hands ironically sparked a fire in Kuroko's chest and memories from that night flooded through his brain again causing him to be stunned momentarily.

"I look forward to playing with you on court, Tetsu-tan. I can't wait." A thumb stroked his cheek. Someone snapped a hand out to slap Hanamiya's hand away but the spider was too quick and removed contact before that happened. Kuroko could vaguely hear Aomine's and Kise's angry roar from the stands. When his mind came back to the present, the Seirin seniors were standing defensively in front of him, forming a barricade as if they could bodily stop Hanamiya's attack.

Right. Kuroko realised that no one else (other than Momoi) knew that Hanamiya and he were friends. That's why everyone was so worked up at their proximity. That's why everyone thought that Hanamiya was mocking him.

"Please calm down, everyone. I'm alright." Kuroko tried to explain.

"He was insulting you! That guy is despicable! How could he do that?!" It was one of the rare times Izuki got so worked up.

"He disgusts me." Hyuuga's hate for the other resounded through that statement.

Riko approached Kuroko slowly and used her hands to check Kuroko's cheeks. Her small, warm hands traced his jaw, making sure Hanamiya didn't do any damage. Nodding, she made a decision and announced to the team:

"Alright. Kuroko won't be starting. Hanamiya has a grudge against Kuroko and we will not risk his safety. The starting line-up will be Izuki, Hyuuga, Mitobe, Koganei, and Fukuda. We will focus on our defence. I don't want anyone getting hurt."

"Wait, coach. Please let me play. It will be ok." Kuroko was desperate to play. He had trained to play against Hanamiya and he was the one who knew the Kirisaki team's playstyle best!

Riko shook her head. "No. I will only sub you in if it is really necessary. Hanamiya has made a threat and your safety comes first."

Kuroko wanted to pull the hairs out of his head in frustration. "I'm sure that was not what he meant. He was really just looking forward to play against me. Please let me play, coach. I know his playstyle and I can counter it."

"Kuroko, please understand the situation. We cannot risk one of our own. Have some faith in your seniors!" Hyuuga knocked Kuroko's head with a fist.

"If Kagami were here, he would agree with this decision too. He would kill us if we sent you out there after what Hanamiya said." Koganei chirped in and the rest nodded.

Kuroko wanted to scream in frustration.

Also, why did they feel the need to bring Kagami into the conversation again?

Also, stupid Mako-tan and his stupid games causing his stupid teammates to make stupid decisions.

On the outside, Kuroko's face maintained his usual stoic look. Inside, Kuroko felt a little disappointed and hurt that his team wasn't listening to him. Like they didn't believe in him.

"Fine. I'll sit out for now. But if anyone gets hurt, I'm subbing myself in."

Hyuuga smiled. "Don't worry. We'll play safe and watch out for one another. Alright then, SEIRIN GO!"

The team cheered and the starting line-up prepared themselves to begin. While the two teams lined up to face each other, Hanamiya sent a look Kuroko's way. The glint in the other's eye told Kuroko that Hanamiya's plan had worked, but the eye roll that followed shared that Hanamiya wasn't entirely satisfied with the outcome.

The game started clean and Seirin took the lead. Kirisaki Daiichi didn't seem to be using much effort to play, and their team really did seem quite bored which pissed Seirin off. Kuroko noticed Hanamiya and Hyuuga exchanging words constantly but wasn't sure what was being said between the two. It was such a clean game that Kuroko was fretting over what Hanamiya's actual plan was. It was never that simple with the spider.

At the end of the first quarter, Seirin was leading by nine points. Kirisaki Daiichi left the court with a joyful, playful attitude despite being down in score. On the other hand, Seirin looked like they were the ones losing.

"That asshole!" Hyuuga growled and chugged down his water from the bottle. "He kept asking me to put Kuroko into the game or they wouldn't play seriously."

"Seto kept telling me that if Seirin didn't want to use Kuroko, they would gladly have him." Izuki frowned as he spoke about Kirisaki's center.

"Hara mentioned how cute Kuroko was and that we should let their captain play with him." Fukuda told the team about the Kirisaki forward whom he had defended in the game.

Disgust and outrage against the other team started but Riko shushed them all.

"Well, tell them we will not be subbing Kuroko in. We will not give in to them." Riko declared and the team called out in agreement.

Kuroko groaned. The whole of Makoto's team were in on it! Damn it! Looking up at the stands, he saw Momoi's confused look, Aomine's and Midorima's heated glare at the opponents, and Kise's look of concern towards him.

Kuroko sighed once more, irritated at how everyone was so protective of him at a moment when he could contribute. At the corner of his eye, he noticed Hanamiya watching him. Slightly amused, but really bored.

Fine, it seems like the only one who could be relied on to sub him in now were the opponents themselves.

Kuroko locked his gaze on Hanamiya, thus catching the captain's attention. A raised eyebrow signalled that Hanamiya was wondering what Kuroko was up to. He then looked at the score board, looked back at Hanamiya, look back at the score board, look back at Hanamiya who was now looking at the score board, then pointed to himself until Hanamiya got the message.

Hanamiya smirked and gestured with his chin in a manner that Kuroko interpreted as this:

_"Oh so you want me to make Seirin fall behind so badly that they will sub you in? What's in it for me?"_

Kuroko returned with narrowed eyes._ "You know you want to play against me."_

Hanamiya leaned forward, chin propped up with his hand resting on his knees. _"Maybe I'll just leave you for the last bit. No hurry."_

Kuroko frowned. Yeah, he knew Makoto would actually do such a thing – taunting Seirin until the last quarter and only playing against Kuroko for a bit. Makoto had all the time in the world outside the competitive scene to play against Kuroko anyway. Damn it. Kuroko was desperate to win Kirisaki Daiichi and he needed to play _now. _

Kuroko raised 1 finger in front of his face and gave Hanamiya a serious stare.

_"One favour." _

Hanamiya smirked, then cracked his knuckles in preparation to decimate Seirin. The captain called out for the rest of the Kirisaki team to huddle in to initiate a new plan of attack.

When the second quarter started, the entire Kirisaki Daiichi line-up had a change in attitude. Seto had gelled his fringe away from his eyes, Hara had stopped chewing bubble gum, Yamazaki was actually guarding Hyuuga properly, Furuhashi had finally had a smile on his face, and Hanamiya was actually quiet for once. This quarter, Seirin was unable to score more than five points, while Kirisaki Daiichi had taken over the lead. Hanamiya's spider web was in full effect and no one could get pass it. Seirin was baffled by the intensity of the other team and even with Hyuuga spitting taunts at Hanamiya, the other Captain didn't react. Hanamiya Makoto was focused and controlled. The quarter ended with 40 to 32 in the favour of Kirisaki Daiichi.

"I don't understand these guys!" Hyuuga raged in the locker room as the team took their half time break. "One moment they think we're not worth it, the next moment they go all out!"

"Coach." Kuroko started. "Let me play in the second half. We need to close the gap."

"They're playing with our emotions, Kuroko. Sending you out means falling for their trap." Riko explained.

"And not sending me out means losing the game which is also part of their plan. I'd rather fall for their trap and have a shot at winning, rather than doing nothing and lose." Kuroko's resolve must have shone through because Riko gave a sigh and nodded in acceptance.

"Alright then. For the next half, Kuroko will be subbed in. Please watch out for one another I don't want any one getting hurt. If they so much as touch you, I will sub you out. Understand, Kuroko?"

"Yes coach."

The rest of the team didn't seem happy with the call but knew they needed Kuroko's passing to break through Hanamiya's spider web. Hyuuga must have been having flashbacks to when Kiyoshi-sempai was sent straight to the hospital after messing with Hanamiya because the Seirin captain was muttering about safety under his breath. It was rather endearing but Kuroko was happy to be playing.

A knock on the door made everyone turn their heads towards the entrance to the locker room where Aomine had popped his head in.

"Tetsu. Come out for a while, will you?"

A quick exchange with Riko told Kuroko that his coach was alright with him going outside for a while. So he followed Aomine out to the corridor.

"What is it, Daiki-kun?" Before Kuroko could finish his sentence, he was enveloped in a hug from Kise who was waiting outside.

"We were worried. What did they say? Why didn't you play? What happened?" Kise fretted and did a quick check of Kuroko's wellbeing.

"Slow down, Ryou." Aomine took one of Kuroko's hand into his own for comfort. "They only allowed two of us in. Satsuki and Shin are outside waiting. They're worried too."

Kuroko gave them a smile to reassure them that everything was ok. He was touched that his friends were concerned about him. It was really unlike how the miracles were last year. "Everything is fine. My team just overreacted to Hanamiya's jokes."

"That asshole."

"Why did he touch you, Tetsu?" Aomine's hands came up to cup Kuroko's cheek. "Did he hurt you? What else did he say?" It was funny that this was the third time in a single day that someone had held Kuroko's cheek. Strangely, only one tingled with heat.

Flashes of memories from _that _night accosted him once more, light touches danced down his spine and a smooth tongue traced along his lips.

"Please, Daiki-kun. Stop fretting so much. Nothing happened." Kuroko managed to quickly push those thoughts away and avoided suspicions.

Kise continued to squeeze him tightly while Aomine stroked his face, gaze intensely checking that Kuroko wasn't lying.

"You're going to play in the next half, aren't you?" Kise asked and Kuroko replied with a nod.

"Don't let them hurt you. If they do anything, I'll kill them." Aomine's tone was gentle despite the words being harsh. It was a rare thing to hear. Touched by their concern, Kuroko moved his arms to envelop them both in a hug together. He swore he heard a squeak from Kise and a breathy whine from Aomine.

"I'll be fine. You're being mother hens and we all know that's Shintaro's job. I'll catch you after the game when we win, alright?" He felt Kise's face snuggle into the crook of his neck, and Aomine's breath puffing into his hair. "I'll be fine. They won't hurt me."

"We'll be cheering from the stands." Kise let go first leaving Aomine to give Kuroko an even tighter squeeze.

"Win this, Tetsu." Aomine finally let go and offered a fist for Kuroko to bump which the shorter male did. As the two left, Kuroko felt his spirits lifted, thankful for having such great friends. He knew he was going to be ok. Kirisaki Daiichi wouldn't hurt him because they knew him from all the times he had observed their training sessions. They might play a little dirty but Kuroko was ready for that.

He really wanted to win Makoto with his own techniques. He was ready.

With a tiny smile on his face, Kuroko re-joined his team, ready for the second half of the match.

The two teams came back out on court from their respective locker rooms after the short break. Riko made sure to run through their tactics one last time. They had planned to use Kuroko's Shadow Zone right from the start. Kuroko was actually really curious how his technique would fare against the original spider's web.

The teams were called back on court for the second half. Kuroko couldn't help it when a little smirk slipped onto his face mirroring the one Hanamiya had on too. Seems like Makoto was excited to play against him too and for some reason Kuroko felt a warm feeling bubbling in his chest from the respect that Makoto must have for him.

"Good. They finally let you out huh? That means we get to have some fun, Tetsu-tan." Hanamiya immediately started to defend Kuroko the moment the referee blew the whistle to start the match. "I told everyone all about your techniques. You won't be able to use misdirection much on us."

"I have a whole bunch of tricks up my sleeve, Mako-tan. Don't be so sure you know everything." And with a sudden change in direction, he managed to lose Makoto who narrowly avoided Izuki who was sent to body block for Kuroko. Kuroko managed to direct the play all the way into the paint, and a nicely placed bounce pass put the ball into Koganei's hands. The forward was about the shoot when suddenly the ball was snatched away. Koganei wasn't too hurt but the little tap at his ankle caused him to shift his posture defensively, thus allowing for Kirisaki's defender to make a steal.

The ball transferred into Kirisaki's hands and soon enough made its way into Hanamiya's control. Kuroko admired the charisma of the captain for a while before directing his own team mates into formation. He knew what Hanamiya was planning and sent Mitobe in place to block while Hyuuga distracted fom the side. Kuroko quickly faded into the shadows which he knew would draw Hanamiya's attention because the captain was wary of losing sight of the phantom. This play allowed Mitobe to slap the ball out of Hanamiya's hands. Ball over to Seirin again.

"Fucking damn it!" Hanamiya cursed, irritated that he fell for that. Kuroko sniggered knowing it was a cheap trick that only worked because he knew Makoto rather well. Mitobe had passed the ball on to Izuki who dribbled quickly to their end of the court and readied for a layup. Out of nowhere, the Kirisaki centre appeared and managed to block Izuki's jump path. The two collided but Izuki wasn't too hurt, just bruised. No points yet for the second half.

The pace of the game was as quicker than the first half but no points were made yet. The moment Seirin found a way into the paint, the ball would be stolen from them. The same happened when Kirisaki tried to run the ball to Seirin's side of the court. Kuroko found his grin growing bigger with each glare sent from Hanamiya. The Captain was truly irritated that the Kirisaki team couldn't break through Kuroko's Shadow Zone.

"Kuroko! We need to start scoring." Hyuuga called out. Kuroko nodded in agreement. Right. Izuki passed him the ball which he then flipped over to Hyuuga. The shoot was immediately defended by two people so he quickly passed the ball over to Mitobe who then go the ball back to Kuroko who was now in the paint. In a flash, Kuroko got into his stance for Phantom Shot and released the ball – only for the ball to be slapped away by Hanamiya.

"As if." Hanamiya scoffed as the referee blew his whistle, calling for Seirin to throw in. "You think you're open? We always have someone on you and we all know how your stupid shot works. You're not scoring today, Tetsu-tan."

Kuroko grunted, irritated, but called for the ball from Izuki who threw in from the side line. He tried using Vanishing Drive only to pass Hanamiya and smack directly into another Kirisaki defender, thus losing the ball. On the turnover, Hanamiya tried for his specialty – the teardrop shot, only for the ball to disappear from his hands the moment he started to fade away backwards.

"Fuck!"

"Mako-tan…" Kuroko warned half-heartedly, passing the ball on. "You know your shots don't work against me too. I know your form too well."

"You're such a little shit, damn it." Hanamiya growled but also ruffled Kuroko's hair first, making it look like a cuff at Kuroko's head, which told Kuroko that the other wasn't really angry at him.

"Stop flirting, you two!" Hara teased but quickly dashed off after Hanamiya sent him a death glare.

"Fucker." Hanamiya cursed and hurried off to defend. The captain let slip another amused grin on his face before sprinting over to aid his team. Kuroko rolled his eyes. Anyone who knew Makoto would know he was enjoying himself.

At the end of the third quarter, Seirin scored six points with Hyuuga's shots, leaving the scores at 42 to 38, still in Kirisaki Daiichi's favour.

Kuroko was having fun.

"Did he hurt you, Kuroko?" The second years came to check on Kuroko's head while the first years helped massage the bruises on their senior's arms and legs.

"I saw him hit you on the head." Furihata checked through Kuroko's blue locks, making sure there were no bruises.

"I'm fine. It was nothing." Kuroko swatted off the wandering hands pawing at him to check for any other injury. "But we need to think of how to start scoring. All my moves don't work on their team."

"Yeah. They seem to know how all your techniques work, Kuroko." Izuki commented and Kuroko was worried they would find out that he had in fact given all his secrets to Hanamiya.

"They're dirty players but they're smart. Seems like we need to just run faster and work harder to break through their defence and keep away from their attacks!" Hyuuga pumped a fist, resolved hardened.

"We've managed to close up the gap but if we want to win, we need to get more threes in." Riko announced. "Kuroko can we count on you to shoot some threes?"

"I'm pretty sure Hanamiya-san knows how to counter my threes but the rest of his team wouldn't. So, if you can block Hanamiya from defending me I can shoot my three-pointers."

"Alright then. Izuki, you're on Hanamiya duty. Let's try to free up Hyuuga and Kuroko as much as we can."

"Alright then, you heard the coach! SEIRIN, GO!"

Before the fourth quarter started, Kuroko made sure to stretch his ankle and knee tendons more thoroughly. This was it. It was time to start his plan.

Right from the start, four seconds into the fourth quarter, Kuroko sunk his second official three-pointer. The cheers from the crowd was crazy and he heard Koganei mutter something along the lines of "yep, totally not a fluke."

Izuki was doing a great job of blocking Makoto but that freed up Hara to shoot some threes on his own. The score stayed close and eventually tied up. Captain Hanamiya obviously had enough and shouted at his team to 'fucking defend properly and if you can't do it, fucking free me up and I'll defend that little shit on my own!"

When Hara started to stick to Izuki like glue, Kuroko knew it was time to start his final plan.

It started with a strange dodge where Kuroko bent a little too low, and bent his leg in a manner than was slightly strange – so strange that Hanamiya almost tripped over Kuroko's left feet when he tried to follow Kuroko's motions.

After a bit of correction, Kuroko started to delay his turns just a little bit and to the trained eye it just seemed like his feet and upper body were just not cooperating with each other. This move actually caused Hanamiya to tip Kuroko over sending the both of the sprawling onto the floor. The ball rolled off court and the referee called for Kirisaki Daiichi to throw in.

Hanamiya gave Kuroko a glare but didn't say anything. Kuroko gave him a small shrug and a quick "sorry".

Kuroko readjusted his calculations again and knew it was going to work this time.

Seirin and Kirisaki Daiichi were tied and there was barely 8 seconds on the clock. If everyone played this right, the game would end in a tie.

But Kuroko had other plans. Kuroko planned to win.

Hanamiya called for his team to defend and watch out for Kuroko's phantom shots – both the two and three pointers. The spider web was in full swing and no one should be able to get a shot in.

Too bad Kuroko wasn't aiming for a shot.

Kuroko was in possession of the ball and Hanamiya was defending him.

"Oh it's so boring, isn't it, Tetsu-tan? It's going to end in a boring draw unless you try to shoot now. Are you going to shoot? Are you going to try your misdirection on me?"

Kuroko tuned him out, used to Makoto's droning. He shifted his weight, one leg lower than the other, his body tilted in a strange manner than kind of showed he was going to try to spin around and dodge past his defender.

He had to do this right.

With a quick spin, Hanamiya followed Kuroko's movements thinking that he was trying to do another sort of misdirection but Kuroko simply turned back and with his ankles in a strange position, and his back leg angled strangely and positioned lowered than his other, Makoto fell for it.

With 2 seconds left on the clock, Hanamiya's leg tripped over Kuroko's and Kuroko tilted backwards and fell onto the ground with the ball still in his possession. The referee blew the whistle as the crowd threw their hands up calling foul.

To everyone's eyes, it looked like the spider of Kirisaki Daiichi kicked Seirin's star player's legs causing the shorter male to fall backwards harshly.

Kuroko smirked, Hanamiya raged.

Hanamiya's hands shot out towards Kuroko ready to strangle the other but the Kirisaki team quickly came to hold their captain back. Seirin quickly rushed over to body block for their team mate.

Through the entire ordeal, Hanamiya's eyes didn't leave the blue ones of Kuroko.

"Penalty shot, Seirin!" The referee called.

Ahhh. That felt good. Kuroko had practiced his with Takao-kun and it had paid off perfectly. He watched as Hanamiya continued to fume and grit his teeth obviously trying to hold his anger back.

Kirisaki Daiichi's captain had finally gotten caught by the referee, and it wasn't even the captain's own fault. Kuroko hoped that Makoto could find it in his heart to appreciate how much effort that took. Kuroko hoped Makoto wouldn't kill him later.

The teams lined up at the penalty area and Kuroko stood in his phantom shot form and perfectly shot the ball in. With 2 seconds left on the clock, Kirisaki Daiichi was unable to pull off a last minute basket and the game ended with Seirin victorious.

The crowd cheered and Seirin celebrated but Kuroko only had his sight on Hanamiya. The older male strode over and bunched the front of Kuroko's jersey up and lifted the smaller male slightly off his feet, face to face with the angry captain.

Kuroko's heart thundered, slightly afraid of what Hanamiya was about to do, but knew it was totally worth it. The other needed a taste of his own medicine after all and Kuroko did learn from the best.

"Fuck." Hanamiya deep growl caused a shiver to run from the tips of Kuroko's hair down to his toes. The heat in Hanamimya's eyes burned through Kuroko. Before Kuroko could say anything, Hanamiya continued, pulling Kuroko closer until their foreheads touched.

"I could fucking kiss you right now."

What?

Before anything else could happen, Seirin came to the rescue and Kirisaki pulled their captain away as well. The two teams exchanged curses and continued to insult each other. Kuroko watched as the heat in Hanamiya's eyes changed into something familiar from _that _night, and eventually a smirk appeared on the captain's face. Kuroko felt his own face heating up and a tingle going downwards.

"That was a good game, Seirin." Hanamiya called out, stopping the verbal exchange of everyone else. "You guys are lucky you have Tetsu-tan on your side."

An exchanged look between the two of them told Kuroko that Hanamiya wasn't angry at him but actually appreciated the play. Kuroko let out a little smile from the pride welling in his chest. Good. Everything was alright between them.

A whispered "what the fuck is he saying?" came from a Seirin player.

"Let's go." Hanamiya signalled for his team to fall back and they slowly backed off. With a mischievous grin, Hanamiya threw one more back at Seirin. "You owe me one, Tetsu-tan! See you on Saturday! Congrats!"

Kuroko coughed as a laugh threatened to escape. Damn it. He knew Makoto would get back at him somehow. "I'll catch you then, Mako-tan."

There was a moment of silence while Seirin processed the exchange between 'Tetsu-tan' and 'Mako-tan'.

The shrieks and 'what the fucks' were worth it after that. Ahh. It was probably time to explain to Seirin anyway. With a satisfied smile, Kuroko ushered his team back into the locker room promising to tell them more about it later while his chest bubbled with a warm well of happiness.

* * *

A/N: the next chapter will carry a scene that sparked this fic in the first place. ANTICIPATION. please leave a review to remind me to write. HAHA.


	5. Chapter 5

_'Congratulations on the win, Tetsuya. We have much to speak about this weekend. See you on Saturday. – Seijuro-kun.'_

"So tell me more about what happened after!"

"Please. I know you heard most of it." Kuroko had to stop himself from rolling his eyes at the enthusiastic Hanamiya. The other was only ever attracted to drama and chaos. "Everyone in the stadium could probably hear Coach and Hyuuga-senpai shouting."

Riko and Hyuuga started the questioning even before the team could retreat back to the locker rooms. They were all in disbelief at first, then the focus shifted to Hanamiya not being someone Kuroko should be hanging out with.

_"He tried to hurt you last year! He hurt Kiyoshi-senpai! Don't you remember that?"_

_"He has ulterior motives. You shouldn't be trusting him."_

_"Why do you even hang out with him? You're a good guy, Kuroko, you don't need to hang out with scum like him. You can hang out with us!"_

Kuroko felt that he didn't need to explain himself and his friendship with Hanamiya to Seirin. In fact, it was difficult to actually describe their relationship. It was hard to define how they became friends and why two people who seemed so different in beliefs could be so similar behind their public façade.

Kuroko didn't think just anyone could understand how the relationship between he and Makoto worked and he knew he didn't need to justify it to anyone else.

"So even your rainbow mother hens know now?" Hanamiya was clearly amused and enjoying himself.

"I had to explain myself at least three times before Aomine-kun and Kise-kun could understand."

_"What do you mean you're friends?"_

_"As in, you guys hang out?"_

_"As in, you hang out in your free time?"_

_"You play basketball together in your free time?"_

_"You exchange texts?!"_

_"How can someone like you hang out with Hanamiya Makoto? He's the spawn of the devil!"_

Hanamiya let out an unrestrained roar of laughter. "Man I wished I could see their faces. It would have been so satisfying!"

It was quite satisfying actually. Kise babbled on and couldn't keep a straight thought because of the shock, while Aomine couldn't believe it and continued to trash talk Hanamiya which almost led to Kuroko blowing a fuse if not for Momoi's intervention. She scolded them for being so close minded and reminded them how 'pure and kind-hearted' Kuroko was that Kuroko was willing to give even the bad boy of Kirisaki Daiichi a chance. In the end, Kuroko was firm on the fact that no one should have a say over what sort of friends he was allowed to make. When they still continued to kick up a fuss, Kuroko brought on the 'Split of the Miracles' era topic and everyone fell silent after that.

However, the Miracles made sure to meet Kuroko more often to take up more of his spare time, thus reducing the amount of free time he could have to meet Hanamiya. For two weeks, Kuroko's time was monopolised by the Miracles and Seirin, who had obviously teamed up together to create a round-the-clock watch over their beloved blue-haired teammate.

In Kise's words, "Kuroko needs to be protected from Hanamiya's evil touch."

In Midorima's words, "Aquarius and Capricorns don't go well together."

In Aomine's words, "That shit needs to fuck off because Tetsu is ours!"

Round-the-clock watches meant that Kuroko hardly had any time for himself. Seirin made sure that there was someone hanging out with him all throughout the school hours. Hyuuga said it was for bonding purposes. Kuroko knew better. After training, the team would go out for dinner. If they didn't, Aomine would casually appear with Momoi, or Kise would turn up to treat him to a meal. Once, Midorima and Takao actually came by and said they wanted to do some school work with Kuroko. They didn't leave Maji until around 10pm.

Another time, Kise and Aomine crashed over at Kuroko's house when he said he had some plans late at night. Because the two made such a mess, Kuroko couldn't leave the house and had to cancel on the study night with Makoto.

Two weeks since then, Kuroko reached his limits.

"Why are you even confining yourself to their rules? Just tell them to fuck off and get the fuck over here." Hanamiya suggested.

Kuroko replied with a reprimand about Hanamiya's language but found himself sneaking out of his house at 12 am, taking the last bus to Hanamiya's house, and eventually staying over in Hanamiya's guest room. Now, here they were eating breakfast for the first time in a long time.

To make things clear, Kuroko did not sneak out to sleep over with his boyfriend. They were just friends, and Kuroko had missed the company of a level-headed human being. They had not spoken about that night but things between them hadn't changed at all so Kuroko believed that they were still friends and that was all.

No, they did not kiss again since then.

No, Kuroko did not want to kiss the other.

No.

"Do you prefer coffee or tea today?" Hanamiya asked while pouring himself a cup.

"Coffee, please."

"Two sugars, no milk, right?"

"Yes please."

"Great. Get it yourself."

Kuroko glared. Hanamiya smirked, and sat back down with just one cup of coffee. Whatever, it was free food any way.

"And you owe me a meal." Hanamiya added as if he had heard Kuroko's thoughts.

"Fine." Irritated but thankful, Kuroko poured himself a cup of coffee and sat back down to continue their conversation.

"Riko-senpai says she wants a rundown of what secrets I've shared with you, and what you have taught me."

"Mmm. And what did you tell her?"

"I told her that I didn't share any secrets with you and you didn't teach me anything." Kuroko observed everything on his own after all. And he figured out the three-pointer shooting method on his own with just a little help from Hanamiya which didn't really count as Makoto teaching him anything.

Hanamiya snorted. "If only they knew how dark you are on the inside."

Kuroko decided to interpret that as a compliment to him being witty and creative.

They had just started on their toasts when a call came in for Kuroko.

Damn it, he thought he had more time.

"Fucking mother hens." Hanamiya cursed while Kuroko pulled out his phone to answer the call.

"Hello?"

"Oi! Tetsu! Where are you? I'm at your place but nobody's answering the door."

"I'm not home, Daiki-kun." Kuroko saw Hanamiya's eyes roll.

"Where are you?" Aomine's tone became serious and alert.

"Out."

"Where?"

"Why are you looking for me so early in the morning, Daiki-kun? Is there something you need?"

Hanamiya whispered a "He needs to fuck off and mind his own business, that's what."

"You're with that Hanamiya, aren't you?" Aomine growled.

"Tell him to fuck off." Hanamiya scooted closer to whisper again.

"Daiki. I think it's only my business who I choose to hang out with."

"Tetsu. He's dangerous."

"I can be dangerous too." Kuroko had to slap Hanamiya away when the older male choked on a laugh and landed on Kuroko's shoulder.

"I'm being serious Tetsu. Sei's coming over today. You know he won't approve of this."

"Then I will talk to him personally. I will see you later then, Daiki-kun." Kuroko sighed. His guard was down when Hanamiya suddenly stole his phone from him.

"Yeah, Daiki-chan, Tetsu-tan will see you later. Wait for your turn, he's mine now. Bye!" Hanamiya immediately hung up without even waiting for a reply from Aomine. Rude.

Kuroko was definitely going to face Aomine's wrath later. But that can wait. Now, it was time for breakfast and toast with Hanamiya.

"So have you read Murakami-san's review of the top ten literature books this year?"

"Oh where did you read that from?"

"There's a website with a transcript of the interview. Let me send you a link."

Down times like these with Makoto really did refuel Kuroko to face the turbulent comings and goings out there. It wasn't that he didn't like spending time with his other friends like his teammates from Seirin or the Miracles. He just appreciated chatting with Hanamiya because they got to talk about things outside of basketball and they had many similar interest in Literature and the Arts. With Seirin, there always seemed to be a proficiency gap between those who were his age and himself so the second years didn't really feel comfortable talking to him. With the third years, they often imposed a lot of their expectations on him and Kuroko felt he was always stretching to meet their image of him. With the Miracles, Kuroko felt it was always the extremes – like Kuroko could never ever reach them, or that they always needed to give extra care and slow down for him.

Perhaps it was easier just to say that with Makoto, he could be himself and not feel like he needed to meet any expectations. Like he could just do nothing and Makoto would be ok with that. Like Makoto truly understood and accepted him.

Makoto would probably say something like "I don't care who you are or whatever you want to do. You wanna stay or you wanna go it's up to you. I can't give a fuck. Don't expect me to coddle you because I don't expect anything from you as well."

His internal Hanamiya Makoto voice was really getting better.

In real life though:

"What time are you heading out?" Hanamiya tired to ask casually but Kuroko recognised a scheming Makoto when he saw it.

"We're meeting at 11." Kuroko replied warily.

Hanamiya checked his watch. "Alright. I can give you a lift. I need to pick up some things from the super mart." Hanamiya then moved to check the content of his fridge and Kuroko mentally forced himself not to react to what had happened _that _night after Kuroko himself had checked the fridge. "I need to stock up on some alcohol and finger food. The guys are coming over tonight."

Kuroko nodded and moved to pick up both plates and cups to wash at the sink. "Did you finally decide on your new bike?"

"Yeah I'll show her to you later. I finally found a dealer who could sell it at reasonable price." Hanamiya had a dreamy smile on his face. "But I've only got one helmet though so I guess if anyone's dying, it's gonna be you."

"Hmmm. I'll take my chances with the bus then." Kuroko shrugged.

"If you take the bus you'll need to leave in ten minutes." Hanamiya narrowed his eyes in challenge.

"Then I'll leave in ten minutes." Why was Hanamiya being so insistent?

"Fine." Hanamiya gave a dramatic sigh. "Fine I'll let you wear the helmet. You owe me one."

"No way. I'm fine with taking the bus."

"Fine. No charge. This one is for free."

There had to be a catch. Nothing was free between them. Kuroko narrowed his eyes at Hanamiya trying to find what Hanamiya's play was.

"I'll let you wear the helmet. In return, don't nag at me about safety or whatever shit."

Kuroko has never _nagged_. There had to be more...

"Fine. I accept." Kuroko replied warily. Hanamiya grinned.

"Good. Anyway, I got her at a great price because Seto's family has a contact and they sold her to me with insurance and all…"

They left Makoto's apartment 20 minutes before 11. Hanamiya's bike was black and sleek, and it totally complemented Makoto's bad boy image. Kuroko was handed a jacket and a helmet to wear, while Hanamiya just put a jacket on backwards without the helmet. Kuroko reminded himself not to nag, and that it was a short distance, and to kindly remind Makoto to get a second helmet at his earliest convenience.

He hopped on behind Hanamiya. If the musky smell of Hanamiya's jacket wasn't strong enough, Kuroko could now get a full whiff of it while tucked against Hanamiya's back. It was warm, and he had to hold himself back from rubbing his cheeks on the soft and warm material of Hanamiya's t-shirt. Thankfully, as soon as they exited the car park, the wind was so strong that Kuroko couldn't smell the intoxicati- ahem. Kuroko couldn't smell Hanamiya anymore.

His arms wrapped around Hanamiya's waist and it was no big deal. They were friends. They were guys. Just two guys riding a motorbike. Kuroko definitely wasn't thinking about how he was blocked from sneaking a hand under Makoto's shirt _that _night.

Kuroko gave some directions as they got closer to the court. As Makoto came to a stop and steadied the bike, the Miracles came out of the court to greet Kuroko.

Ah.

Right.

Kuroko forgot about this part. Now he understood why Makoto wanted to drive him over. Damn it.

First things first, Kuroko hopped off the bike and removed his helmet passing it to Makoto who did not get off the bike.

"Thanks for the ride."

"Your hair's a mess, silly." Makoto proceeded to groom Kuroko's hair. Kuroko glared. Hanamiya smiled so very sweetly.

"That's enough, Mako-tan." Kuroko continued to glare at Hanamiya but the other only stopped after he was satisfied with Kuroko's hair.

"There you go. Don't forget the jacket."

"Oh." Kuroko was glad for the warmth and wanted to keep the jacket with him, but finally noticed it was a Kirisaki Daiichi jacket. Ok. He should really get rid of Hanamiya as soon as possible because he could feel the fiery wrath of the Miracles burning from behind.

"You wanna hold on to it?" Hanamiya sounded serious and used a gentle tone but Kuroko could see the mischievous glint in his eyes. "You don't have to be shy, you look good in my jacket."

Kuroko scowled even harder and Makoto continued to smile. Quickly, Kuroko removed the jacket, folded it, and packed it back into the box behind the bike.

"The guys are coming over for drinks tonight." _If you need me just drop me a call_ – went unsaid but Kuroko understood it that way. Hanamiya reached out a hand and tried to pull Kuroko's head closer but Kuroko quickly dodged it knowing that there were some things the Miracles would really kill for.

Seeing Hanamiya Makoto kiss him was one of them.

"I'll be fine. Go." Kuroko waved the other away before Hanamiya could cause any more chaos. As soon as he stepped away from the bike, Kise launched forward to pull Kuroko into a protective embrace while Murasakibara, who was chewing on a bun, stepped forward to body block Kuroko and Kise. If glares could kill, Aomine would have burned Hamaiya with the force of his glare. Momoi held on to the back of Aomine's Jersey, and Midorima used half of his body to block Aomine.

Akashi had a poisonous glint in his eyes and a grin that promised bodily-harm as he stepped forward to talk to Hanamiya. Kuroko feared for the worst.

"Hanamiya Makoto. May we speak?" Akashi's request sounded a hundred percent like a command and everyone who was used to following Akashi's absolute commands shivered.

Hanamiya snorted.

Everyone, even Kuroko, flinched.

"Nah I don't have time to talk." Mako-tan. Run. Please. "See you later, Tetsu-tan. Have fun with your little friends!" Makoto effortlessly waved Akashi MotherAbsolute Seijuro off, then quickly drove off after that. Kuroko prayed for his safety from this point on. That guy was a dead man walking.

There was silence while everyone processed the horror of what just happened.

"Akashi-kun. I apologise for his behaviour." Kuroko quickly added to try anything he could to keep his stupid friend alive.

"Sei-kun! Calm down!" Momoi didn't touch Akashi like she usually would with them, but tried to move nearer to assess the situation.

Akashi took a deep breath and plastered a smile onto his face. "I'm alright. We're all here today to enjoy each other's company so we shouldn't let any_thing_ ruin our day. We'll talk more about this later alright, Tetsuya?"

Damn it.

"What a fucker, right? Who's he calling little. He's a midget compared to us."Aomine cursed.

"I'm shorter than him, Daiki-kun. What are you trying to say?" Kuroko tried to spin around to face Aomine but Kise was holding him way too tight. "Ryouta-kun, please let go."

Instead, Kise squeezed him tighter and only after a few moments did the blond pass Kuroko directly into Akashi's arms.

"Hello Tetsuya. I've missed you. You've grown so much." Akashi's fondness resounded in his tone of voice. It's been such a long time since Akashi had given him a hug that Kuroko couldn't help but melt into it. "I want to hear everything from you."

"I'm sure they've told you everything already, Akashi-kun."

"That wasn't how you addressed me in our texts. Did I scare you, Tetsuya?" Akashi gave his head a scratch like Kuroko was a favourite puppy. He really was always weak to Akashi's rare affections. Kuroko's legs almost gave way but thankfully he managed to hold on to his pride.

"Seijuro-kun." Kuroko acknowledged and Akashi nodded, pleased. "It's great to see you. And you too of course, Atsushi-kun." Murasakibara gave Kuroko's hair an affectionate ruffle.

Akashi gave a gentle smile. "Come. Let's move to the court. We're still waiting for one last person to join us."

Kuroko looked around and met Midorima's eyes. "Oh, is Takao coming today?"

Midorima shook his head.

"Today is going to be fucking amazing, Tetsu." Kuroko's gaze moved to Aomine who had a pleased grin plastered onto his face, as if the previous encounter with Hanamiya was forgotten.

And Kuroko really did forget all about it the moment he heard _that _voice.

"Oi! Sorry for the wait everyone!"

No way.

Eyes wide in shock, Kuroko slowly turned to face the voice.

Grin beaming like the sun, Kagami Taiga strode onto the court as if he'd never left.

No. Way.

What was he doing here?!

Kuroko's heart hammered and his legs really wanted to give way. No way. This can't be real. A quick look at Akashi confirmed that his ex-captain was the one who arranged for Kagami to be here.

"Yo everyone! Missed me?"

Time stopped a little for Kuroko. Emotions and shivers and warmth flooded his crazily beating heart. Kagami was here. Kagami was here!

"Bakagami! You have a stupid accent now, you asshole!"

"Eh? Can't you have some manners, Ahomine? We literally just met after god knows how long and you're dropping insults already!"

"I think you got fat, Kagami-cchi."

"Well fuck you, Kise. These are muscles ok."

"America didn't seem to suit you, Kagami Taiga. Your face looks horrible."

"I didn't miss you at all, stupid Midorima. Oh, thanks for the invite and the tickets, Akashi. Yoooooo what's up Murasakibara! I heard from Tatsuo that you guys won after you got all serious! I look forward to playing you man. The guys in America are all built like you so it'll be great practice for me." Despite the taunts and teases, Kagami exchanged a hand clap and a chest bump with all the others. As if he never left. He was so at ease and casual and light-hearted and so here. So real.

Inwards, Kuroko was a mess. Outwardly, he kept a stoic facade.

How many weeks has it been? Somehow, Kuroko lost count but he was here now and it was stirring up every silly emotion in his _bodyheadheart_.

It was Akashi of all people who pushed Kuroko forward and into Kagami's warm arms for a hug. Kagami who smelt like food and sweat and laundry and _home_.

"Kuroko." Kagami's deep baritone resounded through Kuroko's bones as the taller male wrapped arms around him.

"Kagami." was all Kuroko could manage.

This was real. Kagami was here!

It became even more real when his head was suddenly pulled under Kagami's armpit and Kuroko was given a good noogie.

"You little shit! I heard that you shoot fucking threes now! Where was this when I was around last year?! We could have won all these losers with just the two of us!"

"You needed all the help you could get, seeing you were nowhere near their level so I had to hide all my talents away." Kuroko responded with his usual emotionless tone. "It's really your fault if you use your brain to think about it, Kagami-kun."

This led to more roughhousing between him and Kagami which was finally put to a stop when Momoi slapped the both of them over their heads.

"Come on, come on! We have a game to play and I haven't seen you guys play in ages!" Momoi quickly got everyone to settle down and Akashi directed them into teams.

"I want to see how well you guys have been playing together. Daiki, Kise, Tetsuya, and Shintaro will play against us three who aren't based in Tokyo."

"No way man. I wanna be on the same team as Kuroko. You aren't separating us today, Akashi." Kagami pulled Kuroko close, and rested an arm around the short male's shoulder.

It's times like these that made Kuroko's heart flutter so unnecessarily. Feeling a flush creep up his cheeks, he elbowed Kagami hard in the ribs.

"Ow! What the fuck, Kuroko!"

"If you're going to say these kinds of things, you'd better take responsibility."

"Har? Don't say it like that Kuroko what the fuck! It's me and you today, man! Afterall, I'm your light, aren't I? No one can beat us!"

Before Kuroko could internally combust, Akashi interjected. "Alright then. In that case, Tetsuya can play with Taiga and Daiki, while the rest of us play against them."

"Awww no fair! I wanna play as Tetsuya-cchi's light! Daiki-cchi always gets to play with him!" Kise whined but went to stand with Midorima anyway.

"Tetsu is mine." Aomine slung an arm around Kuroko. "You saw how he worked with me. I'm the most in tuned with him now."

"Since when, Ahomine? Kuroko still plays best when he's with me! And when did you guys all start calling each other so affectionately?" Kagami tried to push Aomine off Kuroko.

"We're way closer now." Aomine clung on to Kuroko more possessively and showed shark-teeth to Kagami. "I'd say we play so much better than he ever did with you."

"Oh you're on. Let's see who shines brighter, Aho." Kagami challenged, a spark igniting in his eyes. And then, the game was on.

If Kuroko felt set free just by playing alongside Aomine, playing with his two lights felt like a graceful, exhilarating dance that he knew all the steps to. It was a dance he had been taught since he first started playing. Each step was done without much thought, there was no resistance, each move showed how masterful he was.

He didn't need to limit himself like he did with his Seirin teammates. He could ignite pass harder, spin faster, bounce further, and flip the ball wherever he wanted to, and his lights would just explode into action. It didn't matter that Murasakibara and Midorima were defending. Akashi's calls remained ineffective and Kise hardly got any time with the ball.

Kuroko as he was now was way too powerful a support, and with his two lights there was no way anyone would get ahead of them. Aomine with his fist bumps, Kagami with his high-fives, Kuroko was in paradise.

"_Pathetic_." Makoto would say if he were here.

But that was really the last thing in Kuroko's mind right now. He took the effort to properly relish in being in the shadow once again.

He really, really loved playing with Kagami and Aomine.

"Mou that's enough. No one can beat Kuroko when he has two lights." Murasakibara whined.

"Atsushi is right. Aquarius is number one in rank today as well." Midorima added, already taking off his bib, ready to switch teams.

"Man, trashing you guys never gets old." Aomine grabbed a drink from Momoi. "But I want a challenge. Let's switch teams."

"I'm still sticking with Kuroko." Kagami was adamant. Kuroko felt his heart race and little tingles go down his neck. It seemed like his heart didn't get tired of racing when Kagami said stupid things like that.

"Alright then. Let's have Atsushi go over and Daiki join our team." Akashi directed and they followed.

"Ryou, you ready? We gotta beat the Baka." Aomine held his palm up towards Kise.

"Of course, Daiki." Kise slapped a palm onto Aomine's "Let's do this."

And just like that, game two, the two entered the zone.

"Fuck! That quickly?!" Kagami cursed. Kise and Aomine really did improve over the year.

Midorima scoffed. "Please, do you know how often those two practice together nowadays?" Midorima got into position. "Well, maybe I should rephrase that. Do you know how often _we_ practice together?"

Midorima immediately fell into his roll of being the long-ranged support while playing with the two monsters that were Kise and Aomine. Midorima's ability to work together with people in the zone was obviously getting better. Akashi being Akashi could adapt and match the movements of the three team members who had synced up.

"Holy shit. Midorima as support is fucking scary. How did they get so synced up?! How much have they been playing together?!" Kagami was in awe as the three-point shooter managed to pass in a high arc, bypassing Murasakibara's defence, to Kise who had somehow appeared from somewhere to alley-oop the shot in. Midorima calculated how high Kise and Aomine could jump, and served the ball to them precisely.

"Focus, Kagami-kun. I know how to play against them. You just need to focus on getting into zone." Kuroko said before rushing off to defend. Kagami nodded, and all of a sudden with a burst of speed, Kagami went into the zone. Kuroko managed to use Kagami's sudden surge forward as a distraction to steal the ball from Aomine despite the other being in zone.

"Fuck! Damn it! Ryou, get on Kagami." Aomine called out in warning and started to move in tandem with the blond to defend Kagami. They really should have been watching Kuroko though.

Really. He knew how his lights played. He knew how his Miracles played.

A slight dodge and some dribbles brought him to the line where he managed to shoot a three over Akashi's head.

"Wow." It was Akashi's first time seeing his three-point shot after all.

"It's a totally ridiculous form, isn't it?" Midorima complained but was quick on the turn around. The sharpshooter tried to shoot from the opposite end but Kagami was quick to defend. Kuroko read the frown on Midorima's face and quickly signalled for Murasakibara to defend Aomine.

And just like he predicted, Midorima faked a pass to Aomine but tossed the ball without looking to Kise.

Too bad Kuroko had planned that and easily snatched the ball right before it reached Kise's hands.

"Wow." Akashi breathed out in awe once again. Two times in a single day? Akashi really had underestimated Kuroko's growth. "Tetsuya, your reading of the court is almost on par with mine."

"I really appreciate that compliment, Seijuro-kun." Without looking, Kuroko bounced a pass to Kagami who was already in motion and the redhead transformed the pass into a dunk easily.

"Ha! You guys need to try harder than that!" Kagami taunted and Akashi replied by falling into the zone.

With three of the other team's members in the zone, it went rather one sided after that.

Akashi called for Aomine to defend Kuroko while Kise supported him in his attack against Kagami. Kuroko could hardly keep up. He was used to matching his lights in the zone but Akashi in zone was way out of his league. Aomine defending him meant that he could hardly escape to support Kagami. Kagami, too, could barely keep up with Kise, but working with Murasakibara allowed them to block at least some of the plays.

"You're so reliant on Kuroko's shadow aren't you, Kagami-cchi. Remove him and we're on the same level." Kise taunted.

"Fuck off!" and Kagami did increase in speed and managed to score a basket. After that, Kise increased in speed to match Kagami as well and they were back to square one.

Kise really was a monster powerhouse who needed to be appreciated more.

"That guy should never have left you, Tetsu. I hope sees how useless he really is without your support." Aomine whispered to Kuroko while defending.

But… that wasn't what Kuroko wanted Kagami to feel. He never ever wants Kagami to feel useless. Kagami's light has always shone bright and the current situation had nothing to do with Kagami not shining bright enough.

Why should Kagami ever feel dull when they were on the same team and Kagami had all of Kuroko's support?

Kagami should never feel useless when playing with him.

Kuroko was the one who wasn't being a proper shadow.

Kuroko was the one dragging his light down.

And Kuroko was **resolved **to never, ever do that.

For the first time, with a spark in his eyes…

**Kuroko stepped into the zone.**

Woah.

So this was how it felt like.

Like everything didn't need a second thought.

Like everything just worked out.

He never felt this fast.

Everything slowed down around Kuroko.

He was used to everyone's speed while they were in zone. Being in zone himself, everyone seemed slow. He disappeared from Aomine's light so fluidly, and moved as if the whole court was engulfed in his shadow-zone. He easily stole the ball from Akashi motherabsolute Seijuro who was in the zone and directing a play at the moment.

Akashi's face explained the shock that everyone else was feeling.

"Is Kuroko in the fucking zone?!" Midorima cursed for the first time.

"Go go go go go go go." Kise nudged Aomine in the head because the Aho was stunned after seeing Kuroko's eyes light up with the zone-spark.

Kuroko didn't have the mind for any of that. The ball barely touched the tip of his fingers before he had it changing direction, out of sight, past Aomine and Kise, straight into Kagami's waiting palms inches away from the hoop.

He was moving so fast and easy. An exchanged look with Kagami brought a grin to his face and with a flick of his hand, he directed his teammates into the next play.

Before Kise could receive the ball from Midorima, Kuroko signalled for Murasakibara to step foward into half court to body block Akashi.

"We'll be playing in this half from now on. Nobody's getting out of my zone." Kuroko explained, and Murasakibara nodded, speechless since Kuroko got into zone.

In a flash, Kuroko stole the ball from Kise despite the other's quick footwork. Aomine came to defend him as well but it was easy to go lower than usual, disappear from sight, ignite a bounce pass to Kagami who had not faltered once since Kuroko got into the zone, and start preparing for the next turn over even before Kagami had scored.

Kuroko saw the grin on Kagami's face turn into a full blown smile.

Fuck. His light was so bright.

Kuroko felt his heart soar.

Only with Kagami could he imagine ever going into zone.

Akashi quickly read the situation. "Daiki, switch. You and Ryouta need to focus on defending Taiga. Tetsuya's zone was triggered by being unable to enable Taiga's light. He's going to continuously pass to Taiga so just watch over him. I'll take care of Tetsuya."

"Got it." The two replied dutifully, eyes still sparking with their will to win the game.

Kuroko looked forward at their opponents as Kagami pulled up next to him. Without looking, they exchanged high-fives, mind already in tandem on the next play.

Kagami called out to Murasakibara to defend while Kuroko met Akashi head on. He was going to pull out every trick he had. Kuroko really wanted to win this match.

Akashi started off with the ball and trying to get past Kuroko with his superior dribbling skills. Kuroko, used to playing point guard by now, kept up with the Rakuzan captain quite equally. When Akashi tried to pressure Kuroko, he felt his whole body just flow into position and his joints agreeing so well with him. In the zone, Kuroko could follow when Akashi feinted left then right and then left. He felt his body going lower and lower, his legs going into a familiar position automatically, so much so that when Akashi tried to use ankle break on him, Kuroko was able to trip the other up and steal the ball instead.

He had enough of ankle breaks to last a lifetime.

That was a lesson learnt the hard way.

An exchanged look with Kagami sent his light crossing the court and pulling his defender with him.

Sure, Kuroko could shoot a three now.

But he really wanted to show them whose light was the strongest.

"Murasakibara!" He called out and flicked his hand towards Kise. He quickly vanished past Midorima, and before Akashi could catch up, he passed a bounce towards Kagami without looking, trusting that Murasakibara had gotten rid of at least Kise.

All Kagami had to do was twist away from his defender to receive Kuroko's amazing pass.

Knowing Kagami wouldn't get past Aomine to shoot, Kuroko quickly moved to help.

Positioning behind Kagami, Kuroko didn't even need to send a signal when Kagami bounced the ball backwards into his hands, sending Aomine into confusion.

"Keep up! Focus on the people, not the passes!" Akashi shouted and stood in position to block Kuroko. But by then, Kuroko had gone low and disappeared from Akashi's sight once again causing Akashi to swear out loud.

A pass to Murasakibara to pull Akashi's attention away, then a pass back from Murasakibara allowed Kuroko to finally get to the three-point line. He breathed in, got into position, and was ready to shoot but Midorima jumped in to defend. A dark satisfaction brewed at finally being able to shoot a three-point over Midorima after how many times the reversed had happened between them.

"No way." Midorima swore, eyes determined.

"Phantom shot." Kuroko announced, knowing a gleeful smirk had appeared on his face.

He shot.

It went through Midorima's fingers.

It hit the backboard as usual. But rebounded much, much harder than usual.

"REBOUND!" Akashi commanded, a little too late.

Because, even before Kuroko got into position to shoot, Kagami was already flying towards the board, ready for Kuroko's assist, Aomine and Kise trailing a little behind.

Just like old times. Just like when they were in Seirin.

Just like when they were Light and Shadow.

Kagami slammed the ball through the hoops, hanging on for a few swings, before settling back down on earth.

"Fucking damn it." Aomine cursed as Momi called for an end to the game. Murasakibara picked Kuroko up and swung him around chirping in glee. As Kagami came over to hug his team mate, Murasakibara placed the smaller male back down pushed him towards Kagami.

"Shit! I thought I was faster than him! What the hell how did Kagami up his speed all of a sudden in the middle of the match!?" Kise whined from the other side of the court.

"Holy shit Tetsu was amazing. What a slippery little shit." Aomine cursed.

"Urgh. I hate it when people shoot threes over me." Midorima complained

"You do it all the time to everyone else, Mido-chin." Murasakibara came over and hung off Midorima's shoulder.

"Yeah, but it still sucks. Feels like karma."

"Wow." Akashi started, still impressed. "Now I can see how your teams all lost to Seirin. Tetsuya has improved so much."

"Didn't he! You should have seen his last match. He tripped Hanamiya Makoto up just like he did to you just now when you tried to use Ankle Break on him." Kise gushed.

"You should have seen Shin-kun's face when Tetsu-kun shot his first three over his head." Momoi continued gushing next to Kise. "He looked so handsome like a hero after he scored that buzzer-beater."

"I'm still waiting for him to dunk though. He can't dunk over me anytime and I would think it'll be totally worth it." Aomine nodded, eyes closed and imagining the scene.

"You pervert! Is this one of those 'sit on my face' things?!" Kise shot Aomine a disgusted look. "How can you defile Tetsuya-cchi like that!?"

"Sei-kun! These guys keep having perverted thoughts about Tetsu-kun!" Momoi complained.

"Oi! Don't point at me, woman! I don't belong to the same category as them!" Midoima complained while Aomine and Kise started shouting over each other to voice out who was more perverted.

Akashi wasn't amused and had a familiar death smile on his face. "So, who do I need to murder for defiling my Tetsuya?"

"Wait wait wait! Not me! It was Ryou! He groped Tetsu!"

"Hey! Fuck you! You were the one who kept touching him all the time! You slept with him!"

"HAR?! I did not!"

"I have a photo! Let me show you, Seijuro-cchi!"

"Aww, Kuro-chin looks so cute here! He's almost edible."

"No way. You're not joining them in perving over Tetsuya. Don't stand too close to them, Atsushi, you'll contract their pervertness." Midorima tugged his purple-haired team mate further away from the comotion.

"You're being crazy, Shin! And no, that does not count as sleeping together! We just fell asleep on a couch together! Don't listen to them, Sei!" Aomine pulled at his hair in frustration.

"Well then you better start explaining yourself, Daiki." Akashi's tone threatened all sorts of pain. So Aomine quickly got to explaining.

While they continued to banter with each other, Kuroko and Kagami were just coming down from their high. Exchanging looks, they smiled and gave each other their usual high-five.

"God, you're amazing. I definitely still play my best when I'm with you, Kuroko." Kagami smiled so brightly, sweat dripping down his face and neck, looking like he just had the best match in his life.

"That was my first time. I believe Kagami-kun finally brought me all the way there. I could never have done it with anyone else except for Kagami-kun." Kuroko's whole body was still feeling light. It was an experience he would never forget.

"Oi, you can't just say such things, you idiot! Hahaha you make it sound like we had sex or something!"

Kuroko's face burned but his smile still wouldn't leave his face. Stepping forward, he pulled Kagami into a hug.

"I really missed you, Kagami-kun." It was warm. His heart was warm. Kuroko's heart continued to beat fast but he really couldn't hold back the flirting now that Kagami was back. He knew he needed to take action. He knew he needed to do something before Kagami left to places unreachable again. "I really missed you so much."

"Hey, I missed you too man. It isn't the same playing without your passes." Kagami gave his back a few pats. "You've been doing alright, right? I heard that Seirin struggled for a while and you've stepped into point guard position."

"We couldn't recover after you left the team." Kuroko said with a dead-panned tone. "You really must take responsibility for breaking all our hearts and leaving me to pick up all the pieces, Kagami-kun."

"Damn it. Only you will ever say things like that." Kagami pulled him in for another head noogie. "You're doing fine, Kuroko. You're amazing. You even brought home the win this year!"

"Then perhaps you should reward me, Kagami-kun." Kuroko dislodged himself from Kagami's rough grasp and stood in front of the taller male and looked directly into his eyes.

"Hahaha are you being serious, Kuroko? Alright. How would you like to be rewarded?" Kagami smiled softly, playing along with him.

"Hmmm…" Kuroko pondered with a small smile. Maybe he should ask Kagami to come back. That would be quite impossible huh?

Should he ask for a kiss?

Would that be too forward?

This year was about taking chances, right?

Ok. He was going to do this.

"Alright, Kagami-kun, I have decided on my reward." Kuroko used a deeper, sensual voice, and stepped a little closer to Kagami, remembering the tutorial he had previously. He moved his right hand up slowly to hold on to Kagami's left bicep.

"Oh? What is it?" Kagami looked down into his eyes, gaze curious at what Kuroko was trying to accomplish.

Heat. Kuroko could feel Kagami's body heat. His heart was hamming out of his chest and he would be surprised if Kagami couldn't feel it through their jerseys. Slowly, he moved his other hand, slowly inching upwards towards Kagami's handsome face for a caress…

"Taiga! Did I miss it?" a lady's voice cut through the warm atmosphere.

Suddenly, Kagami's gaze was pulled away from his.

"Jess? You're finally here! Did you get lost?"

"Yeah, I got off a station too early and had to walk all the way here! I managed to find it in the end though! Sorry I missed your game, darling. Are you guys still continuing?"

Kagami's heat disappeared. Kuroko couldn't even turn around to look at _her_. Kagami's arm slid through his grasp and his voice drifted further.

What?

What…?

Darling?

Who…?

"Nah. I think we've had enough for today. It was amazing oh my god I'll tell you everything later! I told you about these guys being the top players in Japan but holy shit they've become so much better! Let me introduce you to them. Hey, everyone! Come let me introduce you to my girlfriend, Jessica!"

"Nice to meet you all! Sorry, I can't speak much Japanese. Taiga can translate for me though!"

"Nah we'll just bitch about you behind your back and you'll never know."

"You're such an asshole!"

"Come on, I'm just teasing. Here, this is Akashi, Murasakibara, Midorima, Aomine, Kise, and Momoi. Where's… Oi! Kuroko! Get your ass here! There's someone you need to meet!"

What?

What was going on?

Did Kagami say girlfriend?

It felt like something deep in his chest was hurting. There was an empty void around his stomach. His eyes felt itchy. His head felt heavy.

Who was that?

What was going on?

"So that's Kuroko. We were on the same team and we play super awesomely together."

"The shadow guy?"

"Yeah! Him! Holy shit he played so well just now. Oi! Kuroko what's wrong with you? Get over here!"

"Is he alright?"

Kuroko was jerked back into awareness by an arm around his shoulder.

"I guess Tetsuya is just really tired. The game was really intense. Please excuse him." Akashi's voice came from next to him.

"Oi, Tetsu, are you alright?" Aomine whispered into his ear from the other side and gave his arm a little shake. "What's wrong?"

"Tetsu-kun?" Momoi's worried voice joined in.

"Tetsuya. Breathe. Say goodbye first." Akashi commanded.

He couldn't.

"Breathe."

Kuroko breathed, and put on his best Hanamiya-fake-façade.

"Oh? Kagami-kun you didn't tell us you had a girlfriend! Didn't think anyone would want to be burdened with you talking about basketball 24/7." He forced out a grin on his face. He heard Kise whisper a '_what the fuck?_' at his behaviour.

"Har? Jess is awesome like that. She gets me and doesn't mind my basketball obsession man. You guys need to all find yourself someone like her." Kagami's smile looked like it would be stuck on his face permanently. The girl that had hooked arms with Kagami was about the same height as Kuroko, brown-haired, slim but voluptuous, and honestly beautiful. She had the same vibe as Alex and looked like she fit so perfectly with Kagami.

She looked perfect with Kagami.

Kuroko gave her a smile. "Nice to meet you, Jessica-san. But please excuse us. We're going to head off now."

She returned the smile so innocently. "Oh sure! Rest well! It was nice to meet you guys! Sorry that I missed the action!"

Kuroko nodded and turned to look at Kagami. "Goodbye, Kagami."

"I'll catch you again, Kuroko! I'm staying here for the rest of the week. Let's find a time to meet up again!"

"Mmn. Sure." Replied Kuroko and he gave his bow, before turning away with Akashi's arms still around him. As soon as they were a block away, Kuroko shrugged off Akashi's arm. It was cold. It was heavy.

He felt betrayed.

"You knew." He couldn't even look at Akashi.

"I did."

"And you didn't tell me."

Akashi did not reply.

"You knew. You knew he was my light. You knew that he had her. And you invited him and her here. And you didn't tell me."

"You needed to see it for yourself. You needed that to get over him." Akashi was adamant.

"Why?! Why did I need to get over him?"

"Because he has left. And you have us now."

Fuck.

Fucking Akashi Seijuro and his fucking power plays.

"It's different." Kuroko forced out.

"He held your feelings. He isn't around anymore. You needed to get over him. This was the best way." Akashi continued to fucking justify.

"You still could have fucking warned me, couldn't you, Akashi-kun. I was so close. I almost…" Kuroko really wanted to punch the other. Fuck. He had almost kissed Kagami. What would have happened?

Kagami would have been so fucking disgusted with him.

"What's going on?" Kise asked. "Tetsuya-cchi, calm down."

Momoi held onto his arm while Aomine held him around the waist in support.

"Seijuro. Please explain what's going on." Midorima stood facing Akashi, confrontational. Akashi continued to look at Kuroko as if he fucking expected Kuroko to give in.

Fuck. He just couldn't. He couldn't deal with this now.

Kuroko shrugged Aomine's arm off, and gently dislodged Momoi's hand.

"Tetsu. What's going on?" Aomine and Momoi both looked hurt and confused.

"Tetsuya." Akashi sounded almost like he was pleading.

Kuroko continued to glare at Akashi. "You all should ask Akashi what he has done. I need to go. I need some space."

"Tetsu?!"

"Tetsu-kun!"

Kuroko ran.


	6. Chapter 6

Akashi was an asshole.

'_You needed to get over him.'_

_'You have us now.'_

Who was Akashi to make such decisions?

What did Akashi know about the depth of his feelings towards the light of his world?

Fuck.

Shit. Shit shit shit.

Kuroko gave a small knock on the door. His legs were ready to crumble from the weight in his heart and the exhaustion from going into Zone.

Makoto opened the door with a beer in his hand and a smirk on his lips. Both disappeared the moment he saw Kuroko.

"What the fuck did they do?" the captain growled. At the same time, Kuroko felt Hanamiya tug on his arm and close the door behind him.

Kuroko didn't, couldn't, didn't feel like answering. His jaw just didn't want to work. He felt drained both emotionally and physically. He just wanted to drift.

He was then ushered into the toilet and Hanamiya left for a little while, then came back with a towel. Next thing Kuroko knew, he was shoved under a warm spray and Hanamiya proceeded to pull off his soaked jersey. His pants were kept on.

"Can't even talk? What did they do to you? I'd understand if Red had some issues with you being acquainted with me but for you to end up like this? Didn't Blue or Yellow stop it? I would think Pink had some brains to actually intervene before you got this bad."

He was still feeling numb about Kagami and Akashi and _Jess_.

"I'm going to get you clean and we're going to talk about this. The guys are coming in another hour or so. There's food if you need it but you can take a nap in your room if you want after this shower."

Mind swirling, he felt fingers scrubbing his scalp and pressing into his heavy thoughts. Nails scratched soothingly behind his neck, behind his ears, all the way to the top of his head. He saw soapy suds slide down his chest down into the drain. Hanamiya must have thought that he was clean enough when the water turned off, a fluffy towel wiped his hair and body dry, then he was pushed out of the shower and handed some clothes.

"Change. I'll be waiting outside." the door shut.

Kuroko looked at the clothes in his hands. They were Makoto's sleep wear. The shirt was too big, the pants were too small, but they fit and they smelled like Makoto.

Kuroko stepped out and was immediately manhandled by Hanamiya once again and led to the guest room. He was pushed onto the bed, the lights were off, and all he could think about was the mess that was his life. Hanamiya's weight dropped onto the bed next to him. The other didn't do much other than provide some warmth as they both faced the dark ceiling.

"Talk." commanded Hanamiya. He really didn't want to talk about it. But he knew he needed to talk about something.

"I went into zone." Kuroko started.

"Cool. And?" The other pushed.

"And we trashed them."

"You and Blue?"

"No."

"Red?"

"_Tall_ Red."

Hanamiya cursed. "Fuck. Tall Red was there?!"

"Yes."

"Small Red called him?"

"Yes."

"But why? I thought Small Red wanted you to himself? Why would he summon Tall Red when everyone knows you have a crush on him?"

Kuroko didn't reply. What the heck did Makoto mean by everyone knowing he had a crush on Kagami?

"Okay. So Tall Red and you were in a team and you went into Zone?"

"... yes."

"Isn't that good?"

"It was great." It was amazing.

"Then something must have happened. You couldn't have lost, right?"

"No." How could they when they were the perfect light and shadow duo?

"I can practically hear your thoughts but I don't want to puke so let's not say them out loud. Okay, so you guys won. You must have been elated. So why are you depressed now?"

Kuroko didn't reply.

"Did Blue or Red act out at your couple act?"

... Kuroko bit his lips, almost crying at the word couple. Fuck. Shit. He needed to keep it together.

"Okay I guess not but holy shit you're being depressed." Hanamiya had rolled onto his side to face him. The other's hand was a weight across his arm and it felt somewhat comforting. Kuroko felt Hanamiya's eyes drilling into him with concern. "Something happened. Couple? Okay fuck don't cry on me yet. Couple. Yes ok you're affected by that word why the fuck are you affected by that word? Did you confess to Tall Red?"

"Almost."

"Almost? Why the fuck not? Did Blue cut in? Did Red cut in? Look, we all know that Red and Blue and maybe Yellow all want you for themselves. So which one of them interrupted your confession to Tall Red?"

"Kagami's girlfriend did." Kuroko's voice was barely a whisper.

"Oh fuck. Girlfriend? But Small Red had to know that, right? Oh… Fuck!"

"Yes. Fuck."

"Don't use vulgarities they sound weird coming from you. Ok so Red knew, but still invited Tall Red and side chick all because he wanted to make you realise that your feelings for Tall Red were unrequited. What else?"

"Akashi said it was a necessary move for me to get over Kagami and rely on them now."

Hanamiya snorted. "What a sly snake. What a plan to use the shock of realising Tall Red had a girlfriend to push you into one of their rainbowed coloured arms. Too bad he didn't account for me being around."

Huh?

Hanamiya ignored Kuroko's perplexed look. "Anyway, sounds like Red or Blue or Yellow will try something to get your affections soon since you're all vulnerable and whatever at this moment. Watch out for them. And I did tell you that Tall Red doesn't value you like he should. Sleep on it and we'll figure out our next steps from here, alright?"

Makoto made it sound like the two of them were a team against the rest.

At least Kuroko had someone on his side. Who knew it would be Makoto though?

"Sleep. We'll talk about it when you're no longer depressed or dead."

Sleep really did sound good right now and it wasn't long before Kuroko drifted off, his personal heater staying by his side all the way.

Kuroko woke up to aches all over his legs, arms and back. His body was obviously not used to the strain of going into zone and had started to protest now that the adrenaline had worn off.

There were multiple voices talking out in the living room, and the window showed it was dark outside. He had probably slept for a substantial amount of time and Hanamiya now had guests over.

Speaking of Hanamiya, the other wasn't in the room with him anymore and Kuroko was feeling a little cold from just the warmth of the blanket alone.

Huh.

It was nice of Makoto to cover him with a blanket.

Kuroko took some time to thank God that he had Hanamiya to rely on what with majority of his close friends being difficult. He decided to wallow in the room alone for a while to think through what had happened earlier until he finally felt guilty about not greeting the guests that had arrived. He was taught better manners than this after all.

Wallowing could wait.

Checking the cupboard, he found a set of his Seirin jersey and school uniform but no casual clothes. The shirt he was wearing at the moment was way too big and drooped off his frame when he moved too much. His shorts were too short and Kuroko knew he would not look presentable.

But what choice did he have?

Taking a deep breath, Kuroko opened the door slowly and stepped out into the living room.

Multiple eyes turned to him immediately and everyone, including Kuroko, froze.

"Fuck!" Imayoshi Shoichi who had just graduated from Touou Academy quickly snubbed the cigarette in his hands out onto an ashtray and pushed it out of sight. Kasamatsu Yukio, the former captain of Kaijou, hacked a cough and quickly hid his cigarette too. Both were sitting at the dining table together with Ootsubo Taisuke, the former captain of Shuutoku, who wasn't smoking but had stacked up several cans of beer on his side of the table. Hanamiya, who was also sitting at the table, quickly stood up and rushed over to Kuroko.

Someone whistled from his right. "Well well well. If it isn't our captain's little phantom! Finally decided to join our party?" Hara chirped in from the rug in front of the TV. The bubble-gum fanatic wasn't chewing gum for once because he had a can of beer on his hands and probably couldn't chew if he was drinking. Sitting with Hara were the rest of the Kirisaki team piled together comfortably on the couch or rug.

Kuroko gave them a quick wave before Hanamiya descended on him.

"You dumb shit. Why didn't you get changed?" Hanamiya hissed softly but the room was so quiet everyone could hear. The grouchy male pulled up the collar of Kuroko's t-shirt which had slipped down Kuroko's shoulder making sure he looked presentable again.

"I didn't have anything else to wear." Kuroko blinked at Hanamiya who seemed really flustered. Was Makoto embarrassed? "Should I change into something else?"

"What's wrong with what he's wearing, Makoto?" Imayoshi asked innocently but even Kuroko could read the teasing glint in the other's squinty eyes. "It's okay for Kuroko-kun to dress casually since this is his house too, no?"

Both Kasamatsu and Ootsubo coughed and hid their mouths behind their hands.

Kuroko tilted his head in confusion. "This isn't my house, Imayoshi-san. Hanamiya-kun just allowed me to crash here for a while."

"Hanamiya-kun? Come on Kuroko, we've never heard you address the Captain so formally before!" Yamazaki teased and the rest of the Kirisaki team sniggered. Hanamiya tossed the whole team a glare which everyone effortlessly ignored.

It seemed like everyone who was immune to Makoto's death glare was conveniently gathered in this room.

"Come on. Let's get you dressed properly before these perverts prey on you." Hanamiya tugged Kuroko by the arm while the Kirisaki team catcalled from behind. Kuroko was sure everyone had to be drunk for the normally serious team to be that rowdy.

They entered Hanamiya's room and the captain pulled out appropriately sized clothes while muttering something about "perverts", "bait", and "clueless". There were lots of vulgarities thrown in there as well but Kuroko chose to ignore it.

"Here, put this on." Kuroko was handed a plain black hoodie and a long sleep pants. "If you come out and hang with us, will you kill the party by being all depressed and shit?"

Kuroko understood that as Hanamiya-speak for 'are you ok?'

"It'll be great to keep my mind off things." Kuroko decided to reply, reminding himself to wallow about things later. He pulled on the hoodie and made Hanamiya turn around before taking off his shorts to wear the longer pants.

Before going back out to the living room, Hanamiya issued a warning. "You know my friends are all assholes so don't take anything they say to heart."

"Sure. But if they tell me any embarrassing stories about you, you can be sure that I'll keep that in my heart forever."

Hanamiya snorted. "You'll fit right in, you little shit."

Kuroko was then ushered (shoved) back outside and left to make a decision on which group he wanted to join for the night. He decided to follow Hanamiya back to the dining table to join the other ex-captains since it has been such a long time since he'd seen them. Hanamiya pulled a stool between the wall and his own chair for Kuroko to sit on. Kuroko was sure he saw an exchange of smirks between all the captains but chose to ignore it since he didn't know what to make of it.

"You guys don't have to hide the sticks. He doesn't care." Hanamiya gestured at the cigarettes and Kuroko. Imayoshi and Kasamatsu exchanged looks before shrugging and lighting up another stick each.

"Do you want a beer, Kuroko-"

"He isn't of age yet." Hanamiya intercepted the beer that Ootsubo was passing over and drank it for himself. Kasamatsu and Imayoshi had matchin grins on their faces as they proceeded to tease Hanamiya.

"You know, I've never seen Makoto so…"

"Motherly?" Kasamatsu provided.

"Dude I was going to say protective. Motherly sounds way to incest for this." Imayoshi waved.

"Hmmm. You're right. Makoto is being such a good boyfriend, isn't he? So how'd you two get together, Kuroko-kun?"

Kuroko swore Kasamatsu and Imayoshi high-fived under the table for their successful team up against the usually composed Makoto.

"Shut the fuck up you both. We're not together." Hanamiya growled, flustered, and gave the two a warning look. Kuroko tapped on Hanamiya's thigh to tell him it was alright and he knew this was what Hanamiya warned him about earlier.

"Hmm is that so? Then I'd better send a text to his other boyfriend." Without warning, Imayoshi snapped a selfie of the whole group and sent it along on his phone.

Kasamatsu gave a boisterous roar of laughter. "I'd better make the playing field even then." And the ex-Kaijou captain too took a selfie of the group, making sure to hide their cigarettes from the photo.

Kuroko blanched. Oh my god. They didn't… he wasn't sure if he was ready to meet _them_.

"Should I summon mine as well then?" Ootsubo waved his phone around, taunting.

Hanamiya snorted. "He's not in the running. Don't bother."

"Please tell me you didn't text Daiki-kun and Ryouta-kun." Kuroko despaired.

"Oh I'll have so much fun making him beg for your location." Imayoshi's specs glinted in the light, evil aura almost palpable.

"Oh did I just hear you call them 'Daiki-kun' and 'Ryouta-kun'?" Hara joined the table and draped his body over Kuroko's shoulder. "You won't even call our captain by him name. Does that mean you're closer to them than you are to our captain?" the purple haired nuisance teased. Makoto must have growled softly or something because Hara scooted as far away from his captain as he could.

"I'm just shy to address him casually in front of his close friends." Kuroko quickly explained with a straight face. The last time Hanamiya was upset with Kuroko about Kuroko addressing his Teiko teammates so casually, his ankles faced the wrath of Hanamiya's attempt at ankle break. Hanamiya even made it worse by giving Kuroko's feet a little tap at that moment.

"Yeah right! Come on! You called him by his pet name in front of your whole team as well! Everyone already knows about it!" Hara continued to tease

"What? Why haven't we heard of this?" Imayoshi sat up and pried his eyes away from his phone.

"Come on, Kuroko. Share with us. Makoto doesn't mind, does he?" Ootsubo leaned closer to nudge Hanamiya who chose not to answer.

"Oh no, Ootsubo, I'm pretty sure the captain likes it. Kuroko doesn't just address him as Makoto, you see. It's much more interesting than that!" Hara's stupid smile was getting wider and wider. Kuroko tried to shrug the other off his shoulder but Hara wouldn't budge. He sent a look to Hanamiya to ask for help but the captain wouldn't turn to look at him.

Was Hanamiya upset? Over this? Really?

His ankles throbbed again.

Kuroko wanted to roll his eyes at how childish Hanamiya was being but he refused to show that in front of the others.

"And how does Kuroko address our grumpy spider?" Kasamatsu asked, eyes still glued to his phone.

"I'm betting 'Makoto-chan'." Imayoshi cut in before Hara could answer.

"Oooo I'm betting 'Hanamiya-chan'." Ootsubo continue.

"Fine I have my money on 'Makoto-kun'. That's how he addresses the others as well." Kasamatsu finally pulled his gaze away from the phone hoping to win the bet.

Hara sniggered. "Buuuuuuuu! Everyone's wrong! Go on little shadow! Tell everyone what you call the captain!" Hara squeezed his shoulders. Kuroko glared. Was Hanamiya going to kill him if he addressed the captain by his pet name?

Hanamiya was being awfully unhelpful by looking away. Kuroko frowned. Then, he noticed a little grin on Hanamiya's face behind the can of beer. This was a test, Kuroko was sure of it. But what was the correct answer?

"They are awfully cute! You have to hear this." Hara continued to tease. Kuroko saw Hanamiya's eyebrow twitch. Cute was one word Hanamiya hated. Kuroko knew that much. "The captain has the cutest way of addressing our Kuroko as well!"

Kuroko flinched. Hara was going to be in trouble at the next basketball training session.

When Hanamiya suddenly pushed Hara off and draped an arm around Kuroko's shoulders, Kuroko knew he was in for a rough time. The spider had finally decided to come out to play.

"Oh please Hara. You've only ever heard us address each other in public. You don't know what he calls me behind closed doors." Hanamiya shifted even closer to Kuroko and nuzzled his cheek with his own. "Go on, tell them what you call me in bed."

In bed?!

What?

Kuroko could literally hear that everyone had stopped breathing to hear the answer.

He felt like he couldn't breathe too. It would draw too much attention.

He really wanted to disappear.

Why why why why.

Hara was the one who should be punished! Not him!

Kuroko wanted to groan but saw Hanamiya move to hold up one finger against his cheek.

Damn it. Now?!

Fine.

Fine.

Fine. If Makoto wanted him to act along, he could do it.

It was a rather harmless favour after all. And Kuroko did owe him one from the Kirisaki vs Seirin match.

And he really wanted to get these perverts off his back.

Fine.

Pulling a gentle smile onto his face, he turned to face Hanamiya. "If you're okay with letting everyone know, then I'm okay too, _onii-chan._"

Kasamatsu and Imayoshi both choked on their cigarettes.

Ootsubo did a spit take.

Hara collapsed.

The rest of the Kirisaki team had their jaws dropped open.

Uncharacteristically, Seto wheezed a high-pitched sound.

Hanamiya almost burst out in laughter but caught himself successfully.

"ONII-CHAN?!" multiple voices exclaimed at once.

"Mmnn that's my good little bunny." Hanamiya stroked Kuroko's hair fondly.

Kuroko's face twitched.

"BUNNY?!"

"I've been a good bunny, haven't I? I deserve a reward, onii-chan." Kuroko continued in his usual tone of voice. The words weren't hard to get out when he knew he was trolling everyone else.

"Of course! You deserve everything in the world my precious little bunny. Tonight we will do it in your favourite position." Hanamiya's thumb caressed his cheek and then booped his nose.

"Fuck. Ok. No. Stop. I cannot." Seto groaned.

"Please stop captain." Yamazaki pleaded.

"I apologise for teasing you Captain. Please stop talking about your sex life." Hara cried.

"Good. Now get the fuck away from us and drink in your own corner." Hanamiya's usual scowl came back online as he shooed Hara away. "And really? Onii-chan? Where the fuck did you learn that from, Tetsu-tan?"

"Language, Mako-tan. You called me your little bunny. I believe I was within expectations to call you onii-chan." Kuroko pushed Hanamiya further away from his body. He didn't want to remember _that_ night.

"Please tell us you two aren't really like that behind doors." Kasamatsu kneaded his temples, nursing a headache.

"Have you both really slept with each other? I need to let my kouhai know so he doesn't get his hopes up." Imayoshi asked, fingers poised to type a text out.

"Now why would I give you that information, Shouichi?" Hanamiya smirked and Imayoshi returned the gesture. "What goes on between us behind closed doors is really only our business, Yukio."

"God please, let's move on. Let's talk about something else please." Ootsubo begged. "So Seirin beat us all again. Is there some secret to your training methods, Kuroko?"

Kuroko was glad to get some reprieve from Hanamiya's shenanigans. "We just have a whole lot of determination, Ootsubo-san."

"Now if only you could get my kouhai to be as determined as your team." Kasamatsu continued and Imayoshi agreed.

The group continued to talk about playing basketball in university and their area of studies. Hanamiya spoke about the university he wanted to enter and even Kuroko chipped in on which Universities he would consider.

Hanging out with Hanamiya's group of friends was surprisingly normal and Kuroko felt himself settling into their pace of things and getting comfortable. Ootsubo and Hanamiya finished another 3 cans of beer each within the hour and didn't seem to be slowing down. Imayoshi and Kasamatsu both had stopped smoking and joined the other two in drinking. The Kirisaki team were watching a basketball match on the TV and they gave the occasional cheer and comment once in a while. The vibe was more tamed than Kuroko had expected and he continued to enjoy their company.

Until the bell rang.

Hanamiya and Kuroko exchanged looks.

"If you're up for a talk with them then you can go open the door yourself. Otherwise I'll get the door and chase them away." Hanamiya shrugged, trying for flippant but was obviously protective.

"Why? Did you miracles have a fight or something?" Ootsubo asked.

Kuroko and Hanamiya replied with an immediate "It's complicated." At the same time.

The bell rang again.

The Kirisaki team all turned to look at Kuroko and their captain like some sort of tennis match was going on.

"Just let them wait." Hanamiya encouraged, the hidden 'take your time' wasn't said.

Kuroko took a breath and stood up. He was angry with Akashi and knew he shouldn't be taking it out on his other teammates. It wasn't fair.

But he really wasn't ready for any talk about Akashi or Kagami.

But Aomine and Kise had nothing to do with this mess. They were probably just concerned. Kuroko sighed.

"Should I let them in or talk outside." Kuroko had made his decision to face the two.

"Up to you."

"I don't want to ruin your party."

"You've ruined it enough already. I haven't even smoked this whole night."

"It seems like I've saved a few years of your life. You should be thanking me Mako-tan."

The doorbell rang again, this time banging on the door followed.

"You can use the room if you want. But no hanky-panky."

Kuroko gave Hanamiya a look that clearly said 'you're an idiot' but in a much more polite manner.

"Please excuse me." Kuroko gave a bow to the people at the table and moved to the door. A whispered "he knows we're all going to listen in on his conversation right?" was heard followed by some loud hushing sounds from the others.

Kuroko steeled himself before opening the door. There stood Aomine in all his frowning glory and Kise who had a look of impatience on his face.

"Tetsu." "Tetsuya-cchi!" and then Kuroko was pulled into a massive crushing hug.

"God damn it you had us worried." Aomine started.

"Seijuro-cchi explained everything and Satsuki-cchi scolded him until he had such an apologetic look on his face. I've never seen her that scary before in my life!" Kise continued and nuzzled his face into the crook of Kuroko's neck.

"He was an asshole but he had the right intentions. But fucking Kagami was an asshole too."

"You went into zone for him! That's so romantic but tragic as well! You know you still have us right, Tetsuya-cchi? I'd give you all the love you need! That stupid American can fly back with his stupid girlfriend."

"I swear, Tetsu. You don't need him anymore. We've got your back."

A neighbour popped her head out and Kuroko suddenly remembered that he was supposed to invite them in.

"Daiki-kun, Ryouta-kun, come inside. We can talk in private." Kuroko opened the door a little wider, revealing the rest of the group who were intently listening in on their conversation. Ootsubo was even filming it to probably send to Midorima.

"Yes, Tetsu-tan. Why don't you bring your little friends to your room to have your little heart to heart talk?" The owner of the house was back to his power plays. A whispered "oooo Makoto said 'your room'" was exchanged between Kasamatsu and Imayoshi and the two sniggered.

Kuroko frowned. Hanamiya raised a brow in challenge.

Really. This was Hanamiya's domain. He just hoped the other wouldn't provoke his friends too much.

"Oh, and here's your phone. I forgot to return it to you after I took your clothes off to get you showered earlier. Your coach texted to check if you were alright with the new training schedule and I replied to say you were good with the changes." Damn you Hanamiya. So much for hoping.

Another whispered "ooooo Makoto took off Kuroko's clothes." Was exchanged between Kasamatsu and Imayoshi again and they both sniggered like little gossip girls.

Hara and Yamazaki decided to copy the act and added an "Oooo our captain has free reign over Kuroko's password protected phone ooooooo~!"

Aomine's face was going through some sort of spasm, while Kise's jaw was clenched tight looking like his pearly white teeth were going to crack. Okay, Kuroko needed to defuse the situation. Hanamiya could be such a possessive child sometimes.

"Come on, Daiki-kun, Ryouta-kun. Let's go into my room where none of these kids can eavesdrop on us." Kuroko quickly snatched his phone from Hanamiya's hand and ushered his teammates into the guest room.

"Remember! No hanky-panky! If those boys do anything you don't like just shout for us!"

Hanamiya was an asshole.

The noise level outside rose again once Kuroko closed the door behind him. Before he knew it, Kuroko was snatched into a warm, tight hug as both his team mates swamped for his attention.

"He didn't do anything, did he?"

"He said he took off your clothes?! Did he molest you, Tetsuya-cchi? You can tell us. We can beat him up for you."

"Why does he have access to your phone? Did he bully you into it or something?"

"Wait a moment, you two." Kuroko held a hand up to stop their flood of concern. "I'm ok. Hanamiya-kun took care of me. Stop bad mouthing him, please."

"That creepy spider! As if he'd-" Aomine was cut off by Kise who slapped the back of his head. "Ouch, fuck! What?!"

"Shut up, Daiki-cchi. We're here to support Tetsuya-cchi remember? We're not here to criticise his friendship with Hanamiya Makoto. We've talked about this." Kise furiously whispered as if Kuroko couldn't hear them.

"Damn it. Ok. Fine." Aomine rubbed at the back of his head but focused his attention on Kuroko again. "What we want to say, Tetsu, is that we're really sorry. We didn't know Sei was going to do something like that and we didn't know that Kagami had a girlfriend and all."

"What Daiki-cchi is trying to say is that we're here for you and we're not all out to sabotage your relationships with anyone else. We're just concerned and would like you to know that we'll support you through your heartbreak, Tetsuya-cchi." Kise added.

"Please, Daiki-kun, Ryouta-kun. I'm not some fair maiden who wallows in misery after a rejection." Kuroko wanted to flinch at his hypocritical statement but didn't. "I'm ok."

"Yeah you seem quite fine and having fun hanging out with them." Aomine growled and jabbed a thumb towards the living room but was given another smack to the arm by Kise. "Ouch what the fuck man!"

"Please talk to us, Tetsuya-cchi. We can see that you're upset." Kise urged, holding both of Kuroko's hands tight.

"We're here for you, Tetsu. Talk to us." Aomine nodded in agreement with Kise and pulled Kuroko to sit on the bed while Kise knelt in front of them.

Kuroko felt conflicted. They were his teammates – he could trust them. He should trust them. They've grown closer this year and he knew he could rely on them. And yet, at the same time…

"_Blue or Yellow will try something to get your affections soon since you're all vulnerable and whatever at this moment. Watch out for them_."

Makoto's words came back to remind him that these guys knew about his feelings for Kagami and they knew how vulnerable he was at the moment. He needed honestly. He needed them to be open and clear about what was going on.

"Did you guys really not know about Akashi's plan?"

"We swear. We didn't know." Kise vouched and Aomine nodded.

"But you guys knew about my feelings towards Kagami?"

The two exchanged looks then Aomine finally answered. "We did."

"And what did you plan to do after you found out? Were either of you two supportive of my feelings towards Kagami? Or did you two have agendas to make me stop loving him?" Kuroko flinched after he used the word 'love'. Damn it. He was too emotionally compromised to have this conversation at this moment.

The two were silent for a while. There was some exchange going on silently between them and Kuroko gave them some time to make a decision.

"I was glad when Kagami left for America." Aomine confessed. Kuroko nodded. Aomine grabbed on to the side of his shirt and Kuroko knew he was going to hear some difficult things from Aomine. "I hated it. I hated that he held your attention and affections. I was your light once, Tetsu. Seeing him take my place was absolutely unbearable. Knowing that you _love _him made it hell." Aomine practically spat out the word.

Aomine continued. "When he left, you were mine all again. We were close. You were affectionate. You spent time with us. I was elated." He took a breath before continuing. "I couldn't support your feelings for Kagami simply because I am your light, Tetsu. You're my shadow, not his."

"I have feelings for you, Tetsu. How can I ever support your feelings for him when I want it to be me?"

Kuroko sucked in a breath. Fuck. Hanamiya was right. Aomine really just confessed to him and being in such a vulnerable state, he had no idea how he was supposed to react to this. He was still sorting out the mess that was his feelings for Kagami, only to be handed another bomb that held affections from another light of his.

To make things worse, Aomine was a man of action, not words.

"Tetsu. I'm not asking you to forget about Kagami. I'm just asking you to give me a chance to show you I'm better than him." Aomine had threaded his fingers through Kuroko's hair and cupped Kuroko's face with his palm. There was a warmth on his cheek but he felt a cold dread shooting down his spine.

As if it was an out of body experience, Kuroko watched Aomine's face inch closer until their nose touched, and finally, their lips touched. Aomine pressed in and gave a firm kiss, lips moving slightly against his.

Oh. Fuck. Fuck.

The dark-skinned man moved back slowly to await Kuroko's reaction but Kuroko was really just too stunned to reply.

Damn it. Did Aomine really just confess and kiss him? Why did Kuroko have to handle this now?!

"You asshole!" a smack resounded through the room. Oh. Kuroko had forgotten about Kise. "You're always doing this. I hate it! You two are always one step ahead of me and I'm always just living in the aftermath of you two idiot lights! You can't just confess and kiss Tetsuya-cchi like that!"

"What? Why not? I'm being honest about my feelings. It's not my fault if you don't have the courage to do the same, Ryou."

"That's not the point! I was trying to be considerate to Tetsuya-cchi's feelings! He was just getting over Kagami and now you throw him some curved ball with your stupid kiss! You probably stole his first kiss, you demon!"

"If you're jealous, do something about it, Ryou."

"Tetsuya-cchi? Are you alright?" Kise shook Kuroko's hands to get his attention.

"I…"

"Please consider my feelings for you, Tetsu."

"I told you to have some fucking consideration for him, Daiki-cchi!"

"I… it wasn't…"

"Tetsuya-cchi you're saying it wasn't satisfying?! Daiki-cchi doesn't have any skills does he? Do you want me to kiss it better?"

"What the fuck, Ryou!? That's not what he means! Tetsu! Explain it to him! Tell him it was good!"

"No…"

"SEE! YOU DEMON! TETSUYA-CCHI HATED IT!"

"What…? No way. But…"

Kuroko was really getting a headache from all this. "It wasn't my first kiss."

"What…?"

"What? Really?"

"WHO!?"

"WHO STOLE MY TETSUYA-CCHI'S FIRST KISS?! Was it Kagami?! That fiend! He kissed you and left and got a girlfriend?! WHAT A FUCKER!"

"No. Ryouta-kun, please calm down. It wasn't Kagami." Kuroko tried to reign in their temper.

"Was it Sei then?" Aomine growled. "He's always planning and one step ahead of every single one of us."

"Just wait a moment you two." Kuroko rubbed at his temples, all awkwardness forgotten at the usual chaos these two brought to his life. "Can we focus on the important matter at hand? I have something to say."

"YOUR FIRST KISS IS RATHER IMPORTANT, TETSUYA-CCHI!"

"Ryouta-kun please keep your voice down. Remember we have guests outside."

"GUESTS?! DO YOU REALLY LIVE HERE?!"

"Please listen to what I have to say." Kuroko stood his ground and gave the two a serious look to make his point. "Daiki-kun. I appreciate your feelings for me but I really cannot reciprocate them for two simple reasons: I'm still getting over my feelings for Kagami-kun and I really do love you as a brother just like I love Ryouta-kun, Shintaro-kun, Satsuki-chan, Atsushi-kun, and even Seijuro-kun. You guys are my family and no one, not even Kagami or Seirin, can replace you guys. I'm always thankful for having you all in my life. Please accept these feelings I have for you.

"Ryouta-kun. I'm sorry that you feel like you're always being overshadowed by them. I promise to be more affectionate towards you and spend more time with you. You really do mean a lot to me."

There was silence for a moment while they processed what has been said.

"Oh my god, Tetsuya-cchi! My heart can't take how good you are to me!~"

"Fuck. This is how rejection feels like. I understand what you had to go through today, Tetsu. God damn."

"At least I haven't rejected you by introducing a mysterious, out of the blue girlfriend to you, Daiki-kun."

"Fuck. Kagami is an asshole. Akashi is an asshole too."

"I second that. How could they be so uncaring towards our cute Tetsuya-cchi's feelings?!"

"We can get over our rejection together, Tetsu. Satsuki told me that heartache shouldn't be handled alone."

"Please give up on your forward intentions towards me, Daiki-kun. If not I'll start avoiding you."

"Damn it, Tetsu! Do you have to be so freaking cruel?"

"I think I might be starting to understand Seijuro's intentions. The cruel and straightforward way might really be the best way to get over someone." Kuroko teased and Aomine groaned. It seemed like the situation was slowly diffusing.

"Hey Tetsuya-cchi. Is this really your room?" Kise finally got off the floor and came to bounce on the bed. "It really does smell like you."

"You're being creepy." Kuroko turned a deadpanned look towards Kise who visibly shivered.

"Hey Tetsu." Kuroko turned his attention towards Aomine who held his arms open. "We good?"

Kuroko really did feel better so he smiled and settled into Aomine's arms. "Yeah. We're good. Get over here too Kise." And the blond bounced over to join the group hug.

"Does this mean I can give Tetsuya-cchi a kiss too to make things even?"

"No, Ryouta-kun. Hanamiya-kun did say no hanky-panky."

Both Kise and Aomine frowned simultaneously.

"You sure he's treating you alright?"

Kuroko was tired of their overly protective streak. "Why don't you two join us outside and see for yourself?"

They exchanged looks and nodded. Kuroko knew they were curious after all. He made sure to straighten up his clothes and hair before heading outside. He didn't want to be poked fun at anymore tonight.

Exiting the room, the first thing Kuroko noticed was that they had shifted seats at the dining table. Hanamiya was now seated on the chair closest to the corridor leading to the rooms. It seemed like he had switched seats with Kasamatsu who was now sitting at Hanamiya's previous seat.

Kuroko huffed but smiled. Makoto was really such a mother hen.

The next thing he noticed was that the volume of the television had been turned down. Kuroko had no doubt that they had really been listening to their whole conversation from the living room.

Damn it. That means that they knew about the kiss to some extent.

Hanamiya's eyes locked onto him immediately as he stepped into sight. The captain's eyes scanned up and down then took time to observe Kuroko's minute facial expressions before looking away. Makoto must have deemed him fine since there were no comments made but it did seem like the other was sulking in his seat a little.

"Mako-tan." Kuroko called out knowing Makoto would be happy for Kuroko to call him casually in front of his Teiko teammates. He knew how Makoto liked power plays after all.

Makoto's eyes shot back to him instantly. A slight upturn of the corner of his lips suggested the captain was pleased. Eyebrows raised, a silent "what is it?" was asked.

"Can Daiki-kun and Ryouta-kun join the party for the night? It's been a long time since they've caught up with their captains too."

Makoto snorted. "You live here too. You don't need to ask."

Kuroko chuckled in amusement. A pleased Makoto was always a treat. "You heard him. Daiki-kun, Ryouta-kun, feel free to join us tonight." He then moved to pull a chair between the wall and where Makoto was sitting – just where Makoto placed him earlier on. Immediately, Makoto's arm draped over the back of Kuroko's chair possessively but perhaps unconsciously.

"So you heard everything?" Kuroko whispered to Makoto who gave him a look that said "duh". "Fine. So I don't need to tell you about it then."

"We're having a talk later. You're going to tell me which one of them defiled you. I told you they would catch you while you were vulnerable!" Makato hissed into Kuroko's ear.

"Hmm sounds awfully like you want a favour from me."

"You fucker. I bathed and clothed you when you were all depressed earlier. I gave you a fucking blanket."

"Language, Mako-tan." Kuroko was having way too much fun with Makoto being so worked up with the situation. He didn't even notice Aomine had settled on the couch while Kise had pulled up a chair next to Kasamatsu. Both had their eyes on Kuroko and were watching him but Kuroko's attention was on a rare flustered Makoto. "Fine. I'll tell you about it later."

"Really you two. Did you miss each other so much that you have to whisper sweet nothings in each other's ears the moment Kuroko comes back? Please realise the rest of us are here." Ootsubo interrupted and Kuroko finally noticed how close he and Makoto were sitting.

"Yeah yeah whatever." Makoto simply waved the other away. "So I was saying earlier, this guy actually made me trip over him on purpose and the referee called a foul on me. On me! Can you believe it?!"

"Oh you're telling them about our match? Yeah, Mako-tan was rather pissed. He really looked like he wanted to punch me." Kuroko added, making sure to do everything he can to add to the conversation and steer the attention away from… yeah.

"I mean, I really didn't expect that from you. Who the hell taught you to do something like that?"

"Oh. I practiced it a lot with Takao-kun. You know him right, Ootsubo-kun?"

"Oh yeah! Takao Kazunari! Amazing player, all over the place like a fox." Ootsubo nodded. "He's really good at thinking out of the box and working through difficult predicaments."

And just like that the conversation steered back to basketball. Kise managed to fit right in and made everyone laugh at the bantering with his ex-captain. Imayoshi shared about the Touou team and managed to rile up Aomine who was sulking on the sofa. After that, Aomine was back on his feet and joined the conversation to talk shit about players in each team. They spoke about the odds of Seirin winning against both Rakuzan and Yosen with their current line-up. Hanamiya started to discuss techniques that could help increase Kuroko's abilities against the two giant teams and even encouraged Kuroko to start learning how to shoot from a layup. This kick-started an argument between Aomine and Hanamiya about what sort of close ranged shooting style would best suit Kuroko's current form.

"As someone who specialises in formless shots, I'm pretty sure I'm more capable of finding a style that suits Tetsu!" Aomine argued.

"Yeah but I'm the one who taught him his Shadow Zone. I know how to utilise that together with his vanishing drive to get him to do some sort of layup before moving on to dunking or whatever." Hanamiya was stubborn too and was unwilling to lose to Aomine. Kuroko gave a pat to Hanamiya's thigh to show he supported Makoto's statement quietly.

The topic soon moved towards the level of basketball in the University teams and both Aomine and Kise were hyped by the level of competition they would face in the future. As the night continued, Kuroko relaxed and enjoyed the company of these people who he knew but were never close to. At some point, several of them became drunk and Hanamiya decided to call it a night.

Seto and Yamazaki offered to bring a slurring Ootsubo home, while Kise took care of his captain who could barely walk on his feet. Imayoshi was still coherent and pulled a resisting Aomine to walk home with him, while the rest of the Kirisaki team stayed nearby and could find their way home on their own. Hanamiya was too prideful to admit he was tipsy but Kuroko could see it in how careless his words were becoming and decided to help clean up the house once the rest had left.

He made sure to see them off at the door like a good host as if this really was his house.

"Thanks for hosting us, Kuroko!" Hara called out and the team sniggered as they waved goodbye. Kuroko couldn't be bothered anymore and waved back, resigned. He gave Kise a hug and told the blond to drop him a message once both he and Kasamatsu were back home safely.

When it was Aomine's turn to leave, the taller male pulled him in close and nuzzled into his hair.

"He's quite alright." It must have pained Aomine to say that.

"Mmm. I'm glad Daiki-kun thinks so too."

"You'll tell us if he's being an asshole, yeah?"

"He's always an asshole." Kuroko stated as a matter of fact.

"Well. Yeah. If he's being a bigger one than usual."

Kuroko smiled. "Sure thing, Daiki-kun."

"Alright. Good. Bye Tetsu."

As Kuroko watched Aomine and Imayoshi leave, he had the sudden thought that someone needed to teach Daiki the right steps to kiss. Aomine should really learn how to do it step by step like Makoto did. Perhaps that was why he didn't feel anything when Aomine kissed him. None of the heat or shivers that came with Makoto's kiss. Kisses. Yeah. Wells. Aomine was definitely not Kuroko's first.

Closing the door, he set out to make sure Makoto got into bed safely and hadn't black out in the toilet or something. That guy could really pretend he was alright when Kuroko could see how drunk he was.

All thoughts about Kagami, Akashi, and whoever left him for the rest of the night as Kuroko moved off to care for his landlord.


End file.
